One Mortal Life
by Glenn and Katina Rentholen
Summary: It could have been worse. Loki could have been spending the rest of his immortal life in the damp, uncomfortable cells of Asgards deepest prison. Instead, his brother, now king, had seen fit to offer him something else. The sentence: One Mortal life span on earth. No chaotic Magic. No silver tongue. No tricks. "Learn now, brother, or pay the price."
1. The Punishment

He'd been beaten.

Not just beaten, but _soundly thrashed_. And yet, somehow, despite the mischief, the insanity, the pure _chaos_ that he had incited; Loki Laufeyson managed to get away with merely being stripped of his more powerful magic and a sentence of temporary banishment.

Banished to Midgard for a sentence of no less than one human lifespan, the dark haired god was furious, but surprisingly content. Though he had been stripped of the same powers that would have given him the silver tongue needed to incite further trouble with these mortals, and was now under the very close watch of the same agency that had created The Avengers to bring him down… Loki had to admit that it could have been a far sight worse.

In fact, it was merely the fact that his brother, Thor, had become King of Asgard that had saved him one sorry, painful eternity spent outside of a stinking cell in the deepest, darkest dungeons of the realm he grew up in. Had it been All Father, things would have gone far, _far _worse.

"It is a chance, brother," Thor had told him before sending him on the one-way trip via bifrost. "A chance for you to learn, as I did. To give up your damning acts. To learn humility. To earn the worth of those who love you."

This included their mother. No; _Thors'_ mother. But Frigga had always loved Loki. She had always cared for him in the same gentle, mothering manner that she had with Thor. Never once, not even upon his confronting her about his true parentage, did the woman ever waver in her actions towards him. She never raised her voice, never changed her manner of speaking to him; never drew back from embracing him as she had done since he was tiny.

For their mother, Loki would comply.

The Bifrost dropped him in no less than a foot of snow, in the darkness of some strange place on earth. It reminded him, ever so vaguely, of a time in his youth when he and his brother had ventured down to visit the human Vikings. It had been snowing then, as well. But back then, the stars had been entirely visible in the night sky. Now, the stars were still there, but they were dimmed by a light that came from the distance.

Stepping out into the snow, Loki took in his surroundings. He was standing at the top of a hill. Below him, a city stretched, the spans of which vanished behind other hills, leaving dim glows to illuminate the tree filled bases of the mountains that protected it on either side. Beyond that, he wasn't entirely certain what lay. It was dark. The moon was new, hiding behind her veneer of black that kept the would-be God King from seeing any further.

Climbing down the hill, Loki didn't wonder at where he had been left, only at the surprising lack of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel that were supposed to be babysitting him. No doubt they were just lying low, keeping quiet so that he wouldn't know who they were until he created a scene. _If_ he created a scene.

Though his armor had been stripped from him, Loki's presence was no less noticed in his less formal attire. He received a couple of stares from the people in the pathetic human city, but none approached him.

Good, he thought. It would keep him from having to think of non-violent ways he could get away with offing all of them. He wasn't in the mood to deal with a load of mortals who didn't know their place.

All the same, it was a pain dealing with the kinds of curious glances from these people. He glamoured plain, mortal clothes based from what he saw as he walked. He was glad to have retained at least the magic he had learned on his own, even if not all of the magic he had been born with. It kept mortals from peering like idiots.

Stepping into a restaurant, he let the waitress lead him to a booth. She flirted with him for just long enough to realize that he didn't care to return her ministrations before leaving him alone with a menu and a glass of water.

He ordered something that didn't look entirely unappetizing. She brought him coffee.

Looking out the window at the street, Loki wondered at his predicament. How was he supposed to spend one mortal life? He was a god, as far as these tiny, infantile creatures were concerned. Was he to work, as they did? Live, as they did? Worry about bills, groceries and inane drama, as they did?

One mortal life was nothing. It was a blink, a snap of the fingers, one good deep sigh. But that was on Asgard. Here on Midgard, time was different. And without the Apples from Iddun…

Drumming his index finger on the plastic table-top, Loki punctuated his thoughts with a drawing of his lips. The apples were what kept those of Asgard young and immortal. It hadn't occurred to him that he might not receive their nectar while he was on earth.

One mortal life, without those apples? It would literally become a lifetime, even for the frost giants' son. The idea left the dark haired man unable to touch his food. He stared down at the plate of beige and brown food, unable to think for the moment.

Thor was a lot of things, but cruel wasn't one of them. Loki found it difficult to believe that his fair haired adopted sibling would allow such a thing. But with the punishment being so lenient to begin with, the odds were stacks considerably against Loki.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, shutting out the noise of the music that played from speakers overhead, the orders that were being called behind the counter and the general chatter of the restaurant.

"How do you want to pay for that?" The waitress had returned. She was holding a slip of paper in one hand, setting it down on the table. "If you want to do debit or credit, I'll have to get you to come to the counter. Our portable isn't working right now. But I can do cash here, if you want."

Pay? As in money? This caught Loki more off guard than a punch to the back of the head would have. Since when did one _pay_ for sustenance? How ridiculous were these mortals, anyway? Ugh, if only Thor knew how backwards and ignorant these people really were.

"I haven't any."

The woman was unphased, continuing with her cheery talk.

"Well, that's fine, if you want to pay with debit or credit…"

"Are you deaf, woman?" Loki spoke without as much as a waver in his voice, or hint of embarrassment. "I said I haven't any."

Folding her arms in a dully unimpressed manner, her demeanor changed instantly.

"Well, look. You didn't think the meal was free did you?"

"I did."

"Well, it wasn't. That's why there are prices next to every item on the menu."

Loki glared at the woman. She had obviously had her fair number of years working this job. She was tired, and haggard in the eyes. The cheeriness of which she served him had been a well-trained act. He had to give her credit; he hadn't even noticed.

"What'd you think you were gonna do? Dine'n'dash?" She pointed at the man, and called over her shoulder for someone behind the counter. "Hey! Tell Joey he can go home! I've got a temp!"

"Temp?" Loki glared at the woman. "Temp what?" People were chuckling. It raised his hackles something fierce. Were they laughing at him? _At him_? He was a King! A god! How dare they laugh at him!

"You," The woman backed up as a large man with narrow eyes came out from the back. He was wearing an apron, and –to Loki's surprise- a metal leg. "This guy thinks he don't have to pay."

"Come on, you." The man grabbed Loki by the arm with such ferocity that it actually hurt.


	2. How Sad

Staring at a small mountain of dishes, silverware and trays, Loki looked back at the mountain of a man that had dragged him back to the kitchen. The neandrathal grunted at him, pointing back to the task. His metal leg made a springy-noise as he shifted his weight, and folded his thick arms over his immense belly.

As a child, Loki had snuck into the kitchens. He and Thor had stolen treats from under the noses of the Cook, and eaten them in the pantry, snorting and chuckling at how sneaky they'd been. Right up until they were caught.

This wasn't the first time that Loki had been forced to wash dishes as punishment. Except now he had no magic to aide him in the annoying, messy, smelly task. Rolling up the sleeves of the shirt he had magicked, Loki dipped his hands into the mound of work, lining them up in the tray for the dishwasher.

It wasn't fair that he should have to do dishes for a meal that he hadn't even finished.

"Evenin' Gary." A young man came into the kitchen, trailing a little girl behind him. The girl stopped, looking up at Loki with wide, brown eyes. "Did the paycheques come in?"

"No." Grunted the big man. "Tony said later tonight."

"You're pretty."

_What_? Loki paused in his work for a moment in order to take notice of the little person beside him. Her dark hair was done up in pigtails. She smiled fearlessly at the man that towered over her, clutching a plastic bag to her body.

"Elle, leave the man alone," The young man was sliding on an apron. "Go to the office and color like a good girl."

"But he's pretty!" She didn't remove her eyes from Loki's. He wished he knew why she was staring so intensely. Then again, it took him a moment to realize that he was actually staring at her. Loki couldn't remember the last time he'd seen a child on Asgard. Births were few and far between in the palace. Loki would even go so far as to say that aside from Sif, he was certainly the youngest person to live in the Palace and its surrounding parcels.

That was saying something.

"That's nice," The young man, either father or sibling, Loki couldn't entirely tell, crouched in front of Elle. "But look, the pretty man has to do dishes for Gary, okay?"

"Where's Joey?"

"Elle… You're not paying attention to what I'm telling you." He smoothed some hair that had strayed from its pig-tail confines. "You need to go color in the office while I work. You know the rules, you're not allowed out here."

The little girl peered around the man, and Loki instantly turned his attention back to his work. She sighed, little shoulders hanging low for a moment.

"All right." She huffed. "But can I have cake?"

"You haven't even had dinner, yet!"

"Please? _Please_?" Elle folded her hands around the noisy plastic bag.

"Dinner first, then cake." The man berated the little girl. "Scratch that. Office first, _then_ dinner, then cake. In that order."

"But!"

"No buts!"

Stamping her little foot, the girl spun around, letting her short pigtails shake in annoyance as she stomped off to the office door. Elle struggled with the knob as she tried to balance the plastic bag in one arm.

Sighing, Loki dried his hands on the damp towel that was on the counter, and strode to the door where the little girl fussed. Reaching down with thin fingers, he turned the knob, pushing the door open for Elle, who rewarded him with a big smile. She was missing a tooth.

"Thank you, Mister!"

"Loki," He introduced himself in a tone of gentleness that surprised even himself. Pinching his features again, Loki stalked back over to his task, and put all of his focus, annoyance and energy into trying to keep up with the dishes that kept coming back.

The night seemed to drag on forever. Loki struggled to keep up as the rush out front meant a hurry in the kitchen. He was stacking dishes into the dishwasher as fast as he could manage, and yet the pile beside him continued to grow, as though it had been bewitched to do so.

At some point, the big man stopped him, offering him a break and a glass of something brown and fizzy. Loki took the drink with no less than a bucket of skepticism. Were they not punishing him for trying to get free food from them? Why were they offering him a break?

He watched as Gary took over his job, loading the dishes even faster than he had managed.

"Not fun, is it?" The man at the grill glanced over his shoulder at Loki.

"Is that rhetorical?" Loki wondered aloud. "Of course it's not fun. No punishment is meant to be fun."

This drew a laugh from the man who plated another burger and hit a bell. "Order up!" He looked back to Loki. "I'm David, by the way."

Green eyes rolling at the introduction, Loki focused on the drink in his hands. It was both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. On one hand, it was sweet and felt like there were little sparks of fire on his tongue, but on the other hand, it burned on the way down his throat; and not in the same pleasant way that mead or alcohol did.

"I heard you tell Danielle that your name was Loki?"

"Perceptive, aren't we?" Loki uttered. The look he received from his relief made the _Aesir_ nearly jump out of his skin. Maybe he should try a dumbed-down approach with these mortals. His arm was still aching from there Gary had grabbed him. Who knew what the man could do if he got _really _annoyed.

Couldn't be any worse than what that hulking green beast had done back in Stark Tower, Loki thought with a little shudder. That had been downright humiliating. And he never _had_ gotten his drink out of it.

"Yes," He grumbled. "My name is Loki." Danielle? So 'Elle' had been the diminutive of the name. It suited her well. He turned the plastic cup in his hands, setting it on the counter. "Your daughter is…" Right. Making conversation had never been so difficult before. Humans were meant to be belittled, not spoken to on-par. "Nosey."

Nope. That hadn't been what he meant to do. He was supposed to be 'playing nice' as his mother would have called it. Calling the little thing nosey wasn't exactly being nice. At least he hadn't called her ugly or impudent- although Loki sincerely doubted anyone else in the room actually knew what the word impudent meant.

David shook his head.

"Sister," He corrected Loki. "Well, half. But sister, anyway. And yeah," He chuckled. "She can be kind of nosey. Sorry about the whole 'pretty' thing, by the way." He shook a batch of fries free of some extra oil.

Arching a brow, Loki found himself wondering at the situation. It wasn't his business, he figured. Getting up from the stool that had been offered to him, he left his drink on the counter and nudged Gary out of the way so that he could finish his punishment.

"I wasn't offended." The girl knew good looks when she saw them. Sure, she didn't know how to differentiate between _handsome_ and _pretty_, but Loki knew he was good looking. There was no need to get annoyed at a little girl's misspoken compliment.

"David," Elle stuck her head out of the door to the office. "Is it dinner time, yet?"

"Impatient, as well," Loki commented as he shut the dishwasher and waited for it to run.

"She's seven, man. No seven year old is patient."

Seven years old… What a strange thing to consider. Loki had long since forgotten how old he and his brother were. After they had been allowed to eat the apples form Iddun, there had been no point in worrying about how many seasons old they were. And besides that, it would have been inane to go based on Midgard's time. Even by Asgard's standards, numbering one's seasons would have been a ridiculous waste.

But mortals lived for such a short time; Loki supposed that numbering their seasons was a deranged sort of way to honor how long a person had been among them. It was morbid, he thought. If a human life was an average of say, a hundred seasons, then how sad would it be for them to reach fifty? To know that their lives were half over and it wouldn't be much longer until they turned to dust? What happened when they turned a hundred? Did they give up living, or keep trying to persevere? How painful would it be to know that one had outlived their usefulness?

What a horrible place, he thought. And how sad.


	3. Better Than That

David stripped his apron, hanging it on a hook next to the office door. He peeked inside the darkroom, spotting his little sister, sleeping on the couch inside. Her crayons and coloring pad were strewn across the desk.

"Hey," The dark haired man shook his sister gently. "Time to go home." He let her sit up to put on her shoes and coat as he gathered her things from the desk.

Gary was cleaning the stoves. The restaurant wasn't closing though; it was open twenty-four hours, David had told Loki. But they were changing shifts. Loki had more than paid off his dinner, he felt. And it would seem that Gary had felt the same. He no longer hovered over the thinner man between flipping burgers and plating orders.

Washing his hands, Loki left his sleeves rolled up. The kitchen had been warm to begin with, but after working for eight hours in front of a steaming dishwasher, he was downright sweaty. It was uncomfortable and sticky, but he had managed to make it all the way through without hurting anyone, physically or otherwise. Besides, the labor, as active as it was, had allowed the dark haired trickster to escape his brooding for a little while.

For that, at least, he was grateful.

"You taking the bus home?" David came out from the office, his sister on his hip and her plastic bag around his wrist. She was dozing on his shoulder, eyes barely open, lips parted in a sigh. "The last one leaves in about ten minutes, so…"

"I haven't one."

"Uh… Sorry?" Davids blank expression told Loki that he had said too much. "Wait- You mean, you don't have a home to get to?" David took a moment to scrutinize the man before him. "Where're you sleeping? Out in the snow somewhere?"

This man was alert, wasn't he? Loki shrugged. He hadn't considered it. If he really needed to, yes. He didn't have an issue with the cold. Actually, he had _never _had an issue with the cold, now that he thought about it. The snow that fell in Asgard from time to time had always caused others of the palace to run and find their furs. Loki had never been so bothered with such a thing.

If anything at all, the snow seemed to leave him feeling with a sense of power and invincibility that he had never been able to entirely identify. In fact, his natural magic had always proven strongest and in its finest form in the cold and snow.

"Well, you're not going to sleep out in the snow, man." David was walking towards the back door.

"And where would you suggest?" Loki peered at the man. Humans were predictable. They were pitying, soft creatures who didn't seem to know when they were obviously the prey.

"There's a homeless shelter a little further into town. I'll pay for your bus ticket."

Okay. He had been wrong. It had to happen eventually. Loki stood in stunned silence. He had entirely expected the human to offer his home. They were gullible, stupid things after all. Barely good for even manual labor.

And yet this one… This one had actually suggested that he go to a shelter for those without homes. The audacity!

"I… will decline your offer." Loki uttered. Wasn't he supposed to thank the insolent little brat for the offer? Hah; no! He wasn't thanking anyone for taking enough pity on him to send him to a building full of unwashed, unwanted people! Loki was a prince; whether rightfully of Asgard or of Jutunheim didn't matter. He was better than a _homeless shelter._

"David," Elle whined from his shoulder. "Can we go, now? I'm sleepy. I wan' a cot."

A cot? Narrowing green eyes, Loki tried to piece things together. Not a bed; the child had referred to her place of rest as a cot. Perhaps _he_ had been the foolish one here.

"Well, can't say I didn't offer, man. Later." David turned, walking out of the back door and into the flurries of snow that were starting to build up around the building. He stood outside the back door, watching David as he schlepped his little sister up the alley, presumably towards the bus stop.

Loki followed.

"Perhaps I've rethought your… kind offer." He caught up with the two, striding beside David with long legs.

"S'all good," David shifted his sister's weight. "No worries."

No worries, indeed. Loki wondered at the sentiment. How could anyone possibly utter the words _No Worries_ when they were working a terrible little job at an equally terrible little restaurant? The man and his sister were insignificant. They were _less_ than insignificant. But they were entertaining for the moment being.

The bus pulled up to the stop, letting the three of them on. True to his word, David paid for Loki's fare.

Loki held his breath for a moment. The entire machine stank of unwashed bodies, overpowering perfumes and colognes, and newspaper ink. It made his stomach turn. He refused to sit down on the seats offered, despite the fact that David sank into one, letting his sister snuggle into his lap. That had been a stupid idea.

As soon as the bus started, Loki went down, head hitting the leg of a large, grouchy looking woman in blue hospital scrubs. Scrambling to his feet, he glared forward, gathering his dignity. That hadn't been what he'd expected. Not at all. Of course, once he thought about it, it made sense. He'd been in a truck before, and wasn't that just a smaller version of this moving garbage can?

David watched Loki with a certain amount of hidden humor.

"Dude, you okay?" The murderous look he received for the question almost made the man laugh. He chose not to out of kindness to the stranger, but it was proving difficult. "Haven't you ever been on the bus before? Jeeze, man. Use the hand rails." He pointed up at the bars that ran parallel along the length of the bus.

Loki grabbed one as the bus took a turn that nearly made him stumble again. Oh no, that wasn't happening, he thought. He got what was going on, now. He had his balance. There was no way in Hel that he was going to make a fool of himself again by falling on his ass like an oaf. The woman driving the bus needed a lesson in road etiquette, though. Loki was starting to think he was _just_ the God to do it, too. He didn't have to cause her any harm, but it was terribly tempting to give the woman a little scare, just as a shot to defend his pride.

David reached up, pulling a yellow cord that Loki hadn't noticed when they'd gotten on the bus. It stopped at the following shelter, and the woman wished them all a good evening.

Loki wanted to wish her a happy trip to the underworld. Somehow, he didn't think it'd go over well.


	4. Nightmares

The shelter wasn't entirely what Loki had expected, even though he had been unsure what he really considered it to be like to begin with. There were numerous people lying in cots and sleeping bags. Some of them had backpacks under their heads, others had nothing with them. It, like the bus, smelled strongly of the population that regularly gathered under the roof to avoid the ill weather.

"David, you worked tonight?" A woman at the front of the building greeted him. "You could have left Danielle with me. You know I would have watched her for you."

David shook his head. "No- I appreciate it Rachel, but it's better if she's with me."

"Well, your stuff's in the locker, just like ever." The red haired woman passed David a key with a red tag on it before looking up at Loki. "You brought a friend?"

"Yeah. He's got no place for now, either."

Loki frowned at the sentiment. It wasn't that David was lying; he wasn't. But the idea that his business was now the business of someone he had only known for the last eight hours really bothered him. And what did it matter to a bunch of mortals where he was staying, anyway? This place smelled awfully. The people looked tired and worn out. None of them appeared to have any pride left.

It was terribly depressing.

"What's your name?"

"Loki Laufeyson." Why did he even bother telling her anything? It was moot. Entirely, ridiculously pointless. In the short time of one human lifespan, he'd be gone again, as though he'd never been there. And was he really going to stay in this smelling hole for the night?

"Miss Rachel," Elle whined. "Can I have a cot?" The red haired woman was writing down Loki's name in her log-book. She smiled gently at Elle.

"I'm sorry, darling," She lowered her voice. "Tonight it's a sleeping bag or a mat. The storm's bringing in a lot more people than usual."

"Storm?" Why was he asking about these ignorant, human things? Loki tried to bite back his questions.

"Yeah, we're due for a pretty bad dump of snow and severe cold tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday," Rachel led the three to the rear of the shelter, down a couple of hallways and into a set of rooms that had larger groups of people sleeping together, mostly families. Most of them were sleeping already. The lights were dimmed. People appeared as shadows on the floor.

"There's a spot in the back with mats," Rachel whispered so she didn't wake anyone up. "Sorry. Normally I'd be able to keep a cot aside for your sister, but…"

David shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Rachel. We're just glad to have a place to sleep."

Rachel motioned to Loki.

"Is he gonna stay with you two?" She looked skeptical. Rachel leaned in a little closer to David. "I mean… He's obviously not from around here."

"Obviously," Loki spoke hotly. "Tell me, woman, did you come up with that idea all on your own?"

David stared at Loki like he'd lost his mind. Rachel looked horrified. She stalked off, out of the room, leaving the three of them to set up their mats on the floor in the dark. David balanced Elle expertly on his hip as he kicked out a mat to put her on.

"Can I have my blanket?" She whispered as he laid her down. Kissing her on the forehead, David nodded.

"You'll have to give me a minute," He spoke just as quietly. "I'll have to get it out of the locker, okay?"

Loki watched the entire scene with a bitter taste in his mouth. He and Thor had been so close once, protecting one another, whispering in the dark, exchanging stories and tales under blankets with candles flickering nearby. It made his heart weary to think of such things. Shaking it all from his head, he accepted a mat that David slid towards him.

"Can you just…" He made a face in the dark of the room. "Keep an eye on her for a moment? I mean, she's not going anywhere but... yeah."

Loki opened his mouth to protest; why would he want to watch over the little slip of a female? Obviously he wasn't going to get much of a choice. The girl didn't move from her mat. She lay perfectly still, curled into a little ball. She hugged her knees to her chest in the most defensive looking fetal position Loki had ever seen.

Grunting in annoyance, he had to admit that his mortal form was growing weary. He slid the mat down between the girl and the man on the other side of her. Sitting down, he removed his coat, folding it to use as a pillow. He tried to justify what he was doing by laying on that side of the girl. He could have found another spot to lie, but it seemed to be the most appropriate thing to have done. It made sense.

Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not so much, Loki didn't fancy the notion of leaving some child to the wiles of others less favorable than he. It didn't make him any less intimidating, he decided. Only a little more likeable. Humans liked that _likeable _thing, didn't they? If he had to spend the next lifetime with a bunch of them, there was no point in being dislike on all sides of the spectrum, was there? Not unless he was ruling over the cowering, quivering bunch.

Smirking to himself, he thought about how well his previous conquest had gone. No; fear hadn't worked. It would have been better to pretend to befriend the ignorant masses and ruled over them as a kind, benevolent… _ish_… king. At least that way, they wouldn't have fought back. Loki would keep that in mind for next time, if there was such a thing.

Thor would have still been irritated, but there wasn't a thing in the nine realms that could have been done to help that. _He_ just wanted Loki to _Come Home_.

Home. What a joke.

Sitting on the mat, he looked out over the sleeping mass of people. His smirk faded, his brow lengthened. So many people, sleeping, huddled under one roof, while the winds of cold and snow blew just outside. And if it hadn't been for the weather, where _would _they have slept? Asgard didn't have a homeless problem in the same manner that Midgard did. The problem was unfathomable.

Certainly, there were transients between the realms that were friendly with one another. They showed up from time to time, asking goods in exchange for goods. But they _wanted _their lives. They sang about their weary travels, celebrated the thickness of the soles of their feet and the hardiness souls in their chests, camped in the wilds and lived happily, so far as Loki knew.

"I don't like the dark rooms." Elle suddenly whispered beside him.

"All of the rooms are dark," Loki countered without pity. "Darker still if you shut your eyes."

"I know." Elle replied, shifting. She had her eyes tightly closed anyway.

Feeling a little guilty for his shortness, Loki added; "Should you sleep, then you needn't worry about it. You will dream of better things than the dark." He was rewarded with a smile for his sweet words.

David was coming back and Loki was grateful for it. The young man had a couple of blankets in his arms, handing one to Loki before he covered his sister with another one. The patches of colored fabric made up a pattern of squares that the black haired god would only barely make out in the dimness of the room.

"Thank you," He unfolded the blanket that David had provided.

David shook his head, unfolding a thin blanket of his own. He settled into his mat on the other side of his little sister.

"Sorry about just leaving her with you like that. She doesn't like to go down to where the lockers are," David whispered over Elle's still body. "Normally, I'd have her come down with me anyway, but I know she was glad not to have to."

"There's monsters down there." Elle replied.

"There aren't monsters in the locker room. Go to sleep, Elle." He patted the girl on the head.

Loki shook his head.

"T'was fine," He admitted, before lying down. The room was far from quiet. The heavy breathing of so many people made it hard to sleep. Even though Loki didn't like the idea of being put into a shelter with so many other unwashed, homeless people, he had to admit that he was at least a little glad to not have needed to camp in the snow that night. He could have done it, and it wouldn't have phased him, but it was nice to not need to bother.

It didn't take long for David to fall asleep. The snores of the young man made Loki seriously consider smothering him. Danielle on the other hand, was not sleeping at all. Despite the fact that Loki had his eyes shut and was lying still on the mat beside her, he knew she was watching him. He could all but feel the tiny pressure of her stare on his face.

"Go to sleep," he scolded.

"Sorry," She squeaked softly, huddling deeper beneath her blanket.

Little stare no longer boring a hole through him, Loki managed to relax. He slipped into nightmares of his youth; laughter in golden halls, playful arguments with his brother, glorious battles and celebratory feasts. Why these were nightmares, he couldn't remember, but they hurt. His chest hurt. His arms and legs were heavy and cold.

And then there was judgment.

"_Learn now, brother, or pay the price."_

Sitting up, heart pounding, head aching, and body stiff from laying on the floor, Loki gasped for breath. His hair, mussed from his fitful sleep, fell into his face. The room was emptier than it had been the night before. Morning light shone through the space between the curtains on the windows.

Elle was still sleeping beside him, lips drawn down, with her fingers curled tightly into the blanket that had been given to her the night before. Her breathing was staggered and heavy. Her brother was nowhere to be seen. She, too, was experiencing nightmares, Loki knew. Thor had once had troubles with nightmares as a child, just after the first time he had seen his father fall into the Odin Sleep. He had looked the same. He had breathed the same.

Glancing around the room, Loki took note of the general lack of people. Summoning a child's spell for sweeter sleep, he waved his hand over the girl's sleeping figure. There was no glowing, no sparkle of foreign energy like humans thought was supposed to come from such things, but the girl began to relax. He knew that the spell had taken hold.

Afterwards, he wondered why he had done it. Had it been because she had reminded him of a child-like Thor? No. She was dark hair and eyes, olive skin and thin fingers. Thor had been all husk and power, dimpled cheeks and golden hair. Frowning to himself at the thought, Loki looked down at his own thin hands.

Damn his youth, he thought. And damn the reminders that he had once cared about it, too.


	5. Cold Coffee

The storm had hit, and in spades, from what Loki could tell. Staring down into the cup of lukewarm coffee that had been given to him, he tried to ignore the number of people milling around the open area. Every now and again, the front doors would open and a couple of people would come in out of the cold and snow, shaking an inch of snow from their coats and hats.

"Mister Loki," Elle was yammering across from him again. "I have no school today!" She'd already said so, at least twice.

"So you've said."

"Which means I get to color all day!"

Coloring all day probably meant coloring for ten minutes and then bothering him again, Loki thought. The coffee was swill. He made a face, looking down at it with a sour look.

"Really. Do tell."

Elle stopped in her excitement, putting down a crayon.

"Why are you so grouchy?" she asked suddenly. Perceptive for an annoying child, Loki thought. "Do you need more breakfast? David gets grouchy when he doesn't eat breakfast."

Loki frowned. What was he supposed to tell the child? _Yes, I'm grouchy because I got my ass thoroughly handed to me by some dumb green beast, his ignorant friends and my brother, so now I'm stuck here on this sorry rock with no higher magicks, no real power to speak of and no kingdom of my own_. Of course he was grouchy. He had slept on a mat on the hard floor in a room full of noisy, drooling, ignorant humans. His back was aching, his eyes were tired from all the ugliness and bad lighting, and he was sincerely starting to wish he had taken the offer for the miserable little cell in Asgard.

"This… drink."

"It's coffee!"

"It's cold."

Elle waved down an older woman wearing a name tag.

"Can I show Mister Loki the microwave?"

Ruth, according to the nametag, patted Elle on the head and smiled pityingly at Loki.

"Certainly, dear," Ruth let Elle use her arm to pull herself out of the seat. "Make sure you let the ladies in the back know that I said it was alright."

"Thank you Miss Ruth!" Elle grabbed Loki by the wrist. He flinched out of instinct and annoyance. How dare the little brat touch him. Nobody touched Loki without his permission. But she looked up at him with such innocence and well-meaning. How could he stay angry at some small person who just wanted to show him whatever a micro-waver was?

Standing, Loki allowed Elle to lead him across the busy Centre and to the window where he had received his coffee and poorly cooked breakfast earlier that morning. A bored looking older man with peppered hair looked out over his newspaper at Elle.

"Miss Ruth said," Elle took a breath. "That I could show Mister Loki where the microwave is. Can I come in Mister Jonson?"

Without a word, the man opened a gate to the side, letting Elle lead Loki behind the counter and into the kitchen. This one was much different from the one that Loki had been trapped doing dishes in. The surfaces were covered in a pale, dirty green plastic, and there were multiple sinks together, side by side. There were several women cluttered together around a folding table, peeling vegetables.

"Danielle," A short, fat woman greeted the little girl with a hug and a kiss on the forehead. "How are you enjoying your snow day?"

"David won't let me go play in the snow," Elle complained. "But I'm coloring!"

"And who is your handsome friend?" Another woman asked. She was eyeing Loki from behind a pair of thin spectacles. Loki tried not to show his disgust at being admired by the bunch of old women. At least they weren't touching him, or actively trying to get a rise from him.

Better to be pleasant, he reminded himself twice before replying.

"Loki Laufeyson."

"Loki…" A tall, thin old woman who was crowned with some of the whitest, curliest hair that the God had ever seen, leaned back into her chair, carrot in one hand, peeler in the other. "You _look_ like a Loki, don't you?" Her accent was heavy. Obviously, the woman was foreign.

"And how, exactly, would you perceive me to appear?"

"Like a trickster should," the woman replied, turning her intense gaze back to the root in her hand. "Handsome. Regal. Deceiving. Like you've never seen a moment's peace."

Taken surprisingly aback, Loki said nothing.

"That's Miss Siffy!" Elle explained happily. "She knows all 'bout names and stuff!" Lowering her voice to a whisper, as though nobody else could hear, the girl added; "She's from Norse-a-away."

Siffy?

"Sifjar," The woman introduced herself properly. "She's a bit of trouble pronouncing it." She didn't look up from her work a second time.

Sif. Like the warrioress that Loki remembered on Asgard. The old woman carried the same air of haughty, brilliant, dangerous femininity as the beautiful and deadly Sif back on Asgard. Loki knew that they were often worshipped as deities on Midgard, but it had never occurred to him that the mortals might venture so far as to name their children after them. Perhaps they had prayed that the names would give their children the same strengths as the Gods that they had been named for.

If that were the case, this woman was most certainly how Loki would envision Sif in her older years. Wiry, intense, outspoken, and completely without regard for authority. If he hadn't just seen the maiden of battle just the day before, he would have wondered if this woman wasn't one and the same.

"This is the microwave!" Elle grabbed Loki by the wrist a second time, tugging on him to follow her. "There. You can warm up the coffee."

Staring at the plastic box, Loki looked down at the coffee in his hand. Would it really taste any better warmed up? The coffee he'd had the night before had been alright when it was hot. He didn't think this stuff smelled or tasted quite the same, though. It was hard to tell. And how was a little plastic box supposed to warm his drink, anyway?

Danielle was staring at him.

"Would you have me pluck out your eyes?" he hissed. "Staring is rude."

Squeaking, Elle threw her hands over her eyes and turned her head.

Groaning, Loki put his hand on her head, turning her to face him again.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He grumbled at the stares from the old women who had just greeted him with smiles. "I was… playing." Actually, Loki had been far from playing. It annoyed him that the little girl had zero fear of him whatsoever. Even more so that it seemed that nobody did. "Show me how to use the…"

"Microwave." Elle removed her hands from her eyes, looking up at the man again. This time she appeared confused. But, she dragged over a chair, climbing on it so that she could reach the digit-panel on the front of the machine. "You put your cup in here…" She took the mug from Loki, putting it into the microwave and shutting the door. "Then you put in the time here." She pressed the three and zero, followed by the button labeled _start_. "When it's done, it'll ding at you. Then you take it out. But be careful, because it'll be hot!"

The women went back to their work. Loki watched his mug of coffee spin in circles as the machine hummed deeply. The girl was staring at him again.

"Why must you stare at me?" He asked with a sigh.

"Because you're pretty."

Groaning in defeat, Loki hoped he wouldn't have to deal with this for too long.


	6. Monsters in the Basement

Thunder.

Loki glanced up from the dull book that he'd been reading. Frowning at the sound, he hoped it wasn't what it might have been. Whatever the case, it had made Elle scoot close enough to him that he could smell the markers that she'd been using. He moved a little further away.

David was helping one of the people who worked in the shelter, folding clean blankets. The young man glanced over his shoulder at his little sister.

"Don't bother Loki, Elle."

Elle hummed a reply that she obviously didn't mean, since she scooted closer to Loki a second time.

"I don't like thunder," She complained quietly.

"I'm not terribly fond of it, either." Loki commiserated. "But with any luck, 'tis nothing more than racket." Thor wasn't just noise, he thought, but if he was lucky, that was all that it had been; noise. Not that there was any reason for the newly crowned King of Asgard to come slum it with the peasant folk. He hadn't done anything attention worthy, either.

Loki was starting to crave attention. He missed it.

"Elle," David looked back over his shoulder. "If I give you the key to the locker, will you go get some clean clothes? I have to go to work soon, but I promised Ruth I'd help finish."

Elle stopped what she was doing. Her wide brown eyes focused directly on her brother.

"No."

David pursed his lips. "Look, Elle, it's day time. Even if there _were_ monsters down in the locker room, they'd be hiding right now."

"No."

"Oh, come on, Elle." David set aside another blanket. "I've got another thirty of these to go. Please."

"No. I don't like it down there." Elle folded her arms in a sign of stubbornness.

"_Danielle_." David warned. "Seriously. Please. I'll give you two pieces of cake tonight if you do it."

Loki wasn't particularly attached to the little girl, or her brother, but he had to admit that he knew what it was like to be adamant about certain fears as a child. The memories were hidden, tucked away inside his heart. Once he had been afraid of thunder and lightning. Even though he knew that Thor had complete control over his weather magic, Loki had always gone looking for cover when his brother first started wielding it. The sudden banging and booming, the blinding lights; they were all just a little much for him. Thor had been very proud of his skills, and never hesitated to show off.

Of course, his brassy confidence had increased when he had received his gauntlets and _Mjolnir_.

It had taken Thor a while to realize why he was never able to show off to his dark haired little brother, of course. It wasn't that he was slow-witted (Or maybe he was, Loki reasoned) but simply that it had never occurred to him that anyone would be afraid of his power. Simply put; Thor didn't _comprehend_ the fear Loki had for thunder and lightning.

Once he had realized that Loki feared it, he had done everything in his power to make sure that his younger brother felt safe. He even went so far as to let Loki help conjure a rainstorm once. It had ended in hail and a severe scolding from Frigga, but it had helped Loki understand a little better. For a long time after, Thor would have Loki come out with him to conjure rain and storms.

After a while, thunder and lightning became a half-comfort.

Until the cockiness had almost gotten them killed.

Elle was getting up from the table. She took the key from her brother, and stomped grouchily, past Loki and the other couple of people who were sitting in silence with one another.

"Why does she fear this place so much?" Loki wondered.

David shook his head in confusion.

"I have no idea, man." He was already folding another blanket. "She's refused to go down there without bribes since we got here."

Since they'd gotten there? The way David had spoken the words, it sounded as though he and his sister had been in the shelter for quite some time. Loki was curious. It had to be the boredom, he thought. Otherwise, he wouldn't have cared at all. He debated asking. If he asked about how long the siblings had been in this disgusting little place, would that open up the other doorway to other questions? Why? Where were their parents? And wasn't the boy working; why couldn't he afford lodging?

"How long have you been there?"

David paused, looking down at the blanket in his arms.

"Four… five months, maybe?" He was counting on his fingers. "August, September, October, November, December… Yeah. Five months, I guess."

Loki put down the boring book, standing up from his place at the table.

"You okay?" David was back to folding.

"Going for a walk," Loki spoke shortly. What kind of older sibling didn't at least _attempt_ to comfort the younger? He loathed admitting that he was actually irate with the boy. Why did it matter, anyway? Maybe David _had _tried to comfort the girl about her fears previously.

David didn't reply.

It took Loki a minute to get his bearings, and he had to ask one of the other men where the lockers were, but he caught up with Elle in little time at all. She was slowly making her way down some stairs at the end of the building. He obviously startled her, because she flinched when she realized that he was walking next to her.

"Why are you so afraid of this?" Loki wondered aloud. It was dim, lit only by a couple of hanging bulbs between rows of metal lockers. There were no windows. It looked an awful lot like a dungeon, actually. If the girl had said that she was afraid of the room because it reminded her of a prison, he might have understood it.

Elle was quiet as she walked down the stairs, every step taking her further away from the warmth and light from the main part of the building. She was visibly upset over the decent. Obviously the bribe of extra cake was thinning in the back of her mind. Was the extra cake worth risking the monsters of the basement? Real or imagined, it didn't appear to matter.

Loki narrowed his eyes in the dark, adjusting relatively quickly.

"There's nothing down here." He told her.

"There's monsters." Elle whispered back as she started down the row of lockers furthest to the left. The light flickered. The little girl made a tiny groan of protest as she worked her way down the aisle of lockers.

Then the power went out. Not just the light bulb that had flickered, but all the power in the building. There were cries and curses of annoyance coming from upstairs.

Elle started to cry.

It took Loki a moment to adjust to the darkness. It was far darker than he would have liked, given the situation. Though he had eyesight that was far superior to these humans, even _he_ had trouble seeing. He looked downward, searching for the little girl in the dark.

"I cannot see you," He advised her. "Where are you?"

Loki could hear shuffling. Something touched something metal. It had to have been the girl.

"Stay still," He warned her in the most soothing voice he could muster. Reaching out, Loki ran his hand against the lockers as he moved forward slowly. "Danielle."

Sniffling alerted him to her presence. She must have been alongside the other side of the narrow aisle. Loki was annoyed. He didn't like having to play the human in order to deal with any of this mess. Not at all. This punishment was asinine. This place was asinine. This whole scenario, power outage, little girl whining and sobbing in the dark—it was all asinine.

Except… Loki sighed. Except he felt bad for the child. She hadn't wanted to come down into this dark basement to begin with. And the power going out on top of that? Elle would never venture down a flight of stairs ever again. It was like the icing on the proverbial cake. A disgusting, half-baked, soggy, sour cake.

"Danielle," he crouched in the darkness, reaching out until his fingers connected with her hair. She made a tiny shriek, jerking away from his hand. "Calm yourself," He commanded. "It's only me." Reaching into the dark again, he caught hold of her shoulder. She whined against his grasp, but didn't move.

"Why are you crying? Did you hurt yourself?"

"No." Elle sniffled in the dark. "It's scary."

Scary? The dark? It was just the dark, Loki thought. There hadn't been anything down there when they had come down and as far as he knew, there still wasn't. Being afraid of the dark was stupid. Being small and afraid of the dark, though… Maybe not as stupid as it was just instinctive. One couldn't see in the dark, couldn't use all of the senses that were normally there to protect them in the daytime. So it might have been just a fear of the unknown in disguise.

"Alright," Loki spoke softly. "I will… Help." He hesitated. Was it safe to show the little mortal magic? Well, how was it _not _safe? What was she going to do about it; cry more? "Why are you afraid of the dark?"

"Monsters."

This kid was entirely, genuinely just _stuck _on the idea of monsters. It proved both aggravating and endearing all at once with Loki. Monsters really did exist, he thought. He, himself, was considered a monster. Yet the little girl didn't see him that way.

A dim gold ball of light appeared in Loki's hand, giving off just enough illumination to shadow the little girl that cowered from him. She had her eyes tightly shut against the darkness.

"There are no monsters here." He spoke calmly, using the hand on her shoulder to turn her towards him. She did not open her eyes. There were no monsters but he. The thought invaded his mind so suddenly and so forcefully that Loki almost lost control of the little orb of light in his free hand.

"The one that was here before… Told me he was going to eat me up."

The light went out. The intention had been to comfort the girl against such myths, but now he completely understood her fear of the basement and wondered if her brother knew. Stroking her hair gently, he made a soothing noise as he helped her to her feet.

Loki decided he wasn't as much a monster as the _Aesir_ would have made him out to be after all.


	7. Cold Hands Warm Heart

"Did he touch you?" David demanded again. "Has anyone here ever touched you? Elle, you have to tell me." He had his hands on his little sister's shoulders. Kneeling at eye level with the seven year old, he tried to pry an answer from her. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I did!" Elle protested noisily. "You told me they weren't real!"

It wasn't the same, Loki thought. The girl considered the person who had uttered the words to be a true to life beast, not a human. And while it may have been true on a purely mental level, she didn't seem to understand otherwise. The person who had uttered the disgusting words to her was, and would always be, a monster to the girl.

The power still hadn't come back on. Loki stood aside, letting Elle's brother take care of the issue at hand. He had managed, after a deal of coaxing, to lead the girl back upstairs. She hadn't seen his little light, and for some reason this had displeased the trickster. Had he wanted the girl to trust him? Did he crave attention and –dare her admit- affection so much that he was willing to attempt to glean it from a mortal child?

How disgusting. How pathetic. How sad.

Yet here he was, waiting with a sense of concern that he hadn't felt for quite some time. Anger became a cyst in his chest. How he wished to find the person that had spoken and frightened Elle. Not just because she had seemed to attach herself to him, but also because of the vile idea that was conveyed behind the simple words. How could any person dare speak to a child like that? Elle didn't seem to understand the sexual connotation that had been used on her. She only understood that something had threatened to gobble her up. Somehow, this made the idea that much worse.

Loki couldn't remember if he had ever owned innocence of that caliber. Frigga would have known, but he couldn't fathom the idea. Was he really so old?

Rachel took David aside, leaving Elle to the comfort of one of the old women who had been in the kitchens earlier.

"David, you need to let child services take her." She spoke so quietly that Loki wasn't sure he had heard properly. "This place isn't safe for her."

"She's safe with me." David protested.

"Obviously not!" Rachel took him by the shoulders. "David, you need to think about this. Homelessness isn't how a little girl should be experiencing her childhood."

"I'm waiting for an approval on the apartment. We're not going to be homeless forever."

"Fine! But until then, let the state give her a safer place than this."

"Stay out of it, Rachel."

David jerked away. He stalked back to his sister, taking her gently by the shoulders. He hugged her tightly, and told her to stay put while he got ready for work. Stay upstairs. Stay out of the basement. Stay with the old women. He said nothing about Loki.

Loki crouched next to Elle once Ruth was done wiping away tears.

"Elle," He spoke with careful words, to try and gather as much information as he could. "The… Monster. The one that spoke to you; what did it look like?"

Elle rubbed her face. "I dunno. Dark. Big." She looked up at Loki. "Thank you." She reached out to him, grabbing him by the legs to hug him. For a moment, Loki didn't know how to react. Was he supposed to shove her off of him, berate her for having the audacity to touch him; or return the gesture? In the time it took him to try and figure out what to do, she was already done embracing him, and he had done nothing at all. Why was she thanking him, anyway?

David returned moments later, dressed in clean clothes, plastic bag with Elle's coloring supplies in his hand.

"Alright, let's go."

"Can I stay with Rachel? And Mister Loki?"

"No." The answer was short and unintentionally abrasive. "It's better when you come with me. And besides, Joey'll be looking forward to seeing you again."

"Is Mister Loki gonna come with us?"

David looked up to Loki. It seemed as though he was only just realizing how much taller the man was compared to himself. He eyed the man warily, before shrugging his shoulders.

"If you want out," He offered. "The power's out anyway, so I mean…"

Loki sighed. What was the point in following around a couple of boring mortals? So he could wash a mountain of endless dishes as he had the night before? No, thank you; that should have been his entire answer.

Except it wasn't.

He followed two of them out into the bitter cold and snow.

Jacket lighter than the ones that David and Elle wore, Loki suddenly felt well rested and comfortable. The chill should have bothered him, but as it ever had, it invigorated the frost giant. Despite his _Aesir_ form, or maybe his more human appearance, there were some things that refused to change.

Elle grabbed his hand on the way to the bus stop. Loki took it away from her, but she only grabbed it a second time, obviously not getting the hint. She had her brothers' hand in her other one. Walking down the sidewalk in the cold, coats zipped against the freezing wind and hats down against the snow, the three of them might have been mistaken for a rather strange looking family.

Holding hands… Odin had never been one for public displays of affection, but Loki could remember the sunny days that were hidden from the court, when Frigga and Odin would take their sons into the private gardens of the palace. They would all hold hands, enjoying the moment together. Sometimes, Odin would put his sons on his shoulders, letting them see what the world was like from his point of view.

Frigga would smile, silent and knowing, as she ever had. She would smooth her boys' hair and compliment the three of them on how handsome they were and how much she adored them. She'd let Loki cling to her robes once he was put down on his feet again. Her clean, flowery scent had always made him feel far more safe and comfortable than the spice and overpowering heat of All Father.

Loki suddenly missed his mother. He reminded himself that this punishment was so that he could continue to be near the woman that had cared so much for him. He didn't release Elle's hand a second time.

The bus shelter was full of people huddled together to keep warm. Elle huddled against her brother for warmth. Loki was only a little surprised. He was starting to wonder if she had grown entirely attached to him. Then again, she might have found him cold. Looking down at thin, pale fingers, Loki wondered if he felt cold to others. It might not have affected him in how _he _felt, after all, but that didn't mean that his skin wasn't cold to the touch to others.

"Cold fingers," Elle commented, taking his hand again. "Mommy said cold hands meant your heart was hot."

"Warm," her brother corrected. He glanced back to Loki. "Sorry about that, man. She… doesn't really get the idea of strangers."

"Obviously." Loki replied. Cold hands; Warm heart. What sort of nonsense did the parents of Midgard instill in their children? Cold hands didn't mean that any other part of him was any warmer or more welcoming than the rest. The girl could think what she liked, but it wasn't just his hands that were icy. His heart had iced over the day that he had realized he was little more than a trophy for Odin.

The bus was every bit as disgusting and frustrating as it had been the night before, even though the diver was someone else. Loki refused to sit down. He didn't like the fact that Elle had no problem with sitting in the disgusting looking seats, or that she didn't mind having her bare hands against them. Vile, he shuddered at the thought.

A large woman with thick glasses and unnaturally coloured hair smiled up at him with a bat of her eyes.

Groaning at the admiration, he tried to focus on other things. The way the bus worked, the number of people getting on and off. The man in the suit that was blatantly staring at him from the back of the bus. The same man that was speaking into a headpiece that looked suspiciously like the one that S.H.I.E.L.D. had used.

At least the babysitters were doing their job, Loki mused.


	8. Better a Lie

"What is he doing?" Loki asked Elle. They stood in a glassed-in lobby as David spoke to a short man in a badly suited pair of jeans behind an office door.

"Talking to the guy that owns the building," Elle replied, looking at the names on the mailboxes that lined the lobby. "He's trying to get an apartment so we don't have to live in the shelter anymore." She paused, poking at a piece of a flyer that was sticking out of one of the slits of a mailbox. The girl was trying to push it back into the receptacle.

"Why do you live at the shelter?" Loki wondered aloud. "Stop that." He frowned, steering Elle away from the mailboxes. "Why do you not live with your Mother?" The girl _had_ mentioned a mother at the bus stop, Loki was certain that he'd heard her correctly. "Or your father?"

Elle looked away from Loki. She tucked dark hair behind her ear, fidgeting before she answered.

"Mommy is in heaven."

Heaven. Loki wondered at the concept. This wasn't the first time he'd heard it since he had come to Midgard. Previously, it had come from the scientist Selvig; he had mentioned it in passing as he worked on the tesseract portal.

_Aesir_ believed in _Valhalla_, _Folkvagner_, _Hel_ and _Helgafjell_. The closest thing to heaven that the common folk would have recognized would have been _Helgafjell_. It was a place where the members of society who were not slain in battle, would live out their afterlives in the same way that they had during their living days; a difficult concept to explain to a mortal child who believed in a single deity that separated good and evil into two distinct realms.

"Was your mother a warrior?"

Elle seemed to consider this greatly, before replying with; "David says that Mommy fought very hard, but she couldn't make it."

So her mother _had _been a warrior.

"Being slain in battle is an honour," Loki replied with an attempt to comfort. "She is happy where she rests now." He didn't want to get started on the differences in the afterlife; better to let the child believe her mother was happy.

"What is _slain_?" Elle wondered. "Does it mean dies? Because Mommy didn't die in a battle. She died at the hospital."

This gave Loki pause. Maybe he had communicated something wrong, or else maybe he had misunderstood the little girl. Warriors didn't die in the healing facilities. They died on the battlefield, surrounded by their compatriots, drenched in victory by the blood of their enemies.

"We got hit by a car." Elle clarified in a tiny voice. "Mom hit her head and didn't wake up." No _Mommy_ this time, Loki noticed. The girl wasn't looking at him. She stared at the floor. "David said…" She took a big breath. "David said that she tried to wake up, and that she wanted to stay with us, but that she couldn't."

Drawing his lips tightly together, Loki tried to imagine what the girl was feeling. He, who had always had Frigga and Odin growing up, had nothing to compare it to. Certainly, he had felt slighted and angered by the fact that they had hidden his heritage from him, but he had never been without the love, support and (oftentimes) ferocity of a mother. Frigga had ensured it.

Kneeling in front of Elle, he took her chin in his fingers, tilting her face up so that he could see her. Loki tried to smile, but it failed him. He must have looked something other than his usual pinched self, though, because he saw comfort in the eyes of the little girl.

"Your mother was brave," He agreed. "And it sometimes happens that a warrior is not taken on a battlefield, but in an act of ignorance. She is still happy where she rests." This was a blatant lie. A warrior who didn't die in battle was refused a glorious death. They were doomed to spend eternity with the common folk of the realm of the dead, working at arduous tasks, rather than battling, drinking and slaying.

But he didn't like the look of agony on Elle's face. Better a lie that might keep the girl from upset than a truth that might break her heart.

"Have you not your brother?" He asked. "You are not alone."

She gave him a wan smile, the smile of someone who knew too much about death at far too few seasons old. Loki smoothed her cheek with his thumb and tried to give her a little smile. She looked away as the office door flew open.

"I already gave you the first and last months' rent! And now you want a security deposit too?"

"You're just too young. You need a co-signer, kid." The man was chewing gum. "Can't help you unless you get me a security deposit and a co-signer." He held out an envelope, which David snatched angrily away. He looked down at Elle, taking her by the hand.

"Let's go." David barked. He all but dragged Elle out into the snow. Two blocks to work, in the cold wind and drifting snow. David stalked angrily and entirely too quickly down the sidewalk. Elle could barely keep up with her short legs. She trotted behind him, holding his hand in hers, stumbling when she forgot which foot went where.

Loki was decidedly unimpressed with both David and the man who had been just annoying enough to make the young man angry. He had considerably less of a hard time keeping up with the furious boy, but watching David drag his sister behind him was less than comical.

"You're hurting me!" Elle jerked her hand away from David. "Stop it, David!"

Stopping, David looked back at his little sister. Her wooly hat was coming off her head and her coat was barely zipped up. He'd left in such a hurry that he hadn't even bothered to make sure that she hadn't tried to get undressed from the weather. Blinded by his anger, the young man hadn't even thought about what he had been doing, or who had been with him.

Crouching, he zipped up his sister's jacket and pulled down her hat so that it sat properly on her head, keeping her ears warm.

"Sorry, Elle." He murmured.

Loki frowned at the scene, but the corners of his lips weren't as tightly drawn as they once would have been. His green eyes covered the expanse of the area. The restaurant that he had been in the night before was just a few hundred meters away. The neon OPEN sign flickered against the white and grey of the world around it.

Just past it was another person in a long black, featureless coat.

More S.H.I.E.L.D., no doubt.


	9. Yes, You Do

Niceness, Loki reminded himself. He was supposed to treat the humans with some measure of kindness, so niceties were necessary. Sitting across from the table where two agents sipped their coffee, Loki tried not to look as though he were going to murder either of them.

"It's been noted that you're currently in a…" The first agent paused. "Stressful environment."

"Like Midgard as a whole?" Loki offered mockingly. "Gladly send me back. I will rot for eternity in the deep beneath Asgard."

The men exchanged glances with one another before turning back to Loki. It was painfully obvious that neither of them was aware that Loki had being extremely sarcastic. At the very least, they were questioning the legitimacy of the statement wordlessly between them.

"I believed sarcasm to be a form of humor that humans understood universally." Loki clarified.

The waitress came out from the back room, carrying two bowls of soup and a plate with a bacon sandwich. She set all of the above in front of the men, and then turned her entire attention to Loki. She wasn't going to trick him with her front of sweetness a second time.

"Joey's sick. You decide you wanna try Dine 'n Dashing again, there's an open spot in the back for you."

One of the two agents chuckled to himself, finding a deal more humor in the situation than Loki did.

"You managed to get suckered into dishwashing? I didn't even know that people actually _did_ that."

"My apologies," Loki spoke calmly. "Did you say you enjoyed pain and suffering? I can certainly arrange it for you." He knew it was a lie. If he did anything at all out of the realm of niceties for these ignorant, foolish, tiny people, Thor would have his ass in a cell before he could say _I jest!_ No second chance after that, joke or not.

Apparently, the two agents in front of him knew it.

"You're living in the homeless shelter down on ninth," The older of the two commented. "And Director Fury…"

"Your Director has no say in the punishment my brother has kindly passed down on me," Loki uttered without so much as flinching. He looked down at his soup, stirring it mindlessly. "Unless he is offering me better accommodations, I have no interest in what your he has to say."

"Actually," The younger man spoke up after he swallowed a bite of his sandwich. "The Director would like it if you continued working at the shelter. And a message from Thor has indicated that this might be in your best interest."

Well. That was only mildly horrifying.

"I'm not working with these dull creatures," Loki corrected the agent. "I am there only until better living conditions happen to cross my path."

"And the little girl?"

A frown creased Loki's face.

"What of it?"

"You were being close to her while in the shelter."

"So you've agents there as well?" The question was a statement, whether phrased that way or not. "Well, I suppose it only makes sense." Taking a spoonful of soup, Loki didn't look up again. It actually got under his skin that there were agents in the shelter, watching his every move. When had they gotten there? It had to have been that morning. That was the only time that Loki had seen anyone come in or out. That meant that they probably knew about what had happened in the basement of the building when the power went out.

He wondered what kinds of assumptions they'd made when he'd dragged the sobbing little girl up the stairs and into the main area of the building. Probably that he'd done some beastly and caused the tears. Nobody had stepped forward about it, though. Even if they had, Elle probably would have defended him.

"She's taken a shine to you." The older agent responded distantly. Loki knew the tone of voice; Don't try to take advantage of the child. Don't try to use her as a shield, or a tool for malice. He was insulted they'd think such a thing. If he wanted a tool, Loki would use the brother.

"You needn't concern yourself, Agent." Loki groused. The soup didn't suit his tastes. He put it aside for the time being. "Battles are not meant for children; they know no better."

A look of relief was exchanged between the two agents.

The younger one put down a bill to pay for their meals. The waitress thanked them, and turned her attention to Loki.

"Gary wants to see you." She gave a nod of her head towards the back room. "Go on."

Loki pulled back, narrowing his gaze. "As though I'd return to that pit of a kitchen," he mused. The look from the waitress told him that the comment had been inappropriate. He didn't need to be told, but it surprised him that she had the guts to look at him like that. Then again; who here knew who he really was? Obviously none but the agents across the table from him.

"Whatever." The waitress took the money.

"Keep the change, Miss." The younger was flirting.

The waitress rolled her eyes, scoffing at the words, and walked away, money in hand. So she _did _have taste, Loki mused. Good to know that she hadn't merely flirting with him because she had to put on an act for the sake of her job. Not that it would have made any kind of difference. He still would have turned her down. She wasn't his caliber of female.

The big man from the back came out, apron over his clothes, metal leg squeaking ever so faintly as he approached the table. He looked down at Loki, features pinching in an effort to intimidate.

"You. You want a job?"

Loki sneered.

"Here? No, I think not."

"Yes, you do." The man grabbed him by the arm, grip pinching as he dragged the god out of the booth and towards the back. Both agents jumped at the bravery, hands on weapons that were hidden in their coats, ready for Loki to start beheading and killing. To their shock and amazement, he let the bigger man drag him off to the back.

"This _is _the same guy that killed like... eighty people, right?" The younger man didn't look back at his partner.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's him."

"Release me, you primitive." Loki jerked his arm away from Gary. "I'll follow, but you need not handle me like spoiled goods." What was wrong with all of the humans in this city? Especially this one. He was big, even intimidating, but he should have been cowering in fear in front of Loki, not grabbing him like some beer wench at a sleazy tavern.

Gary looked at Loki with the same intensity that the god gave him. He didn't flinch, he didn't cower; he just stared back.

"You go put on the apron, get to work."

"Congrats on the job," David tried to sound cheerier than he really was. "Sounds like Joey called in drunk."

"He should have called in dead," Loki responded instantly. David and Gary both chuckled at the sentiment. Loki donned an apron, though for the life of him, he wasn't sure why. Rolling up his sleeves, he went to work on the mountain of dishes that waited for him. A stare was piercing him. Turning his gaze towards the office, he saw Elle watching him from the door. She smiled a little bit.

Shoulders dropping in defeat, Loki went to work.

"Treating me like some slave… I should have wiped you all out when I had the chance," He muttered under his breath.


	10. Stupid Girl

Elle stared out the window of the office at the snow. It was coming down in opaque sheets of soft white. For a moment, she could forget that it was cold. Frost singed the corners of the window, and just under her nose and mouth where she breathed on the pane of glass.

There was nobody on the street. The kitchen was silent. The radio was going.

Elle was lonely.

Loki was sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen. An order hadn't come into the kitchen in over an hour. The dishes were done. The kitchen was clean. Gary was reading the newspaper, of which the front page announced _BIGGEST SNOWSTORM IN 25 YEARS PREDICTED_. He leaned against the counter, elbows on the metal top.

"One of us should probably head home," David sighed. "Without any business, there's no reason for both of us to be working the line tonight. Tony'll be pissed if we both stay."

Gary glanced up from his newspaper and grunted. Folding the paper, he shifted his enormous weight noisily.

"I'll go."

"You sure, big guy?"

Gary grunted again, this time in confirmation as he shed his apron. He glanced back at the office, noticing that the door was wide open and that Elle was watching everything out the window.

Loki followed the fat mans' gaze. The girl looked so forlorn. How was it possible for someone so young to look as though she'd seen so many worries from the world? He didn't understand why it was possible to connect to someone on a level that didn't even entirely make sense to him.

There had been a season in Asgard once, when the snow had fallen for days and days, covering everything that had once been golden, in white and iridescence. He had looked out over the scene with a pain in his heart that he couldn't describe. His chest had ached with a longing that he could never have understood at such a young age.

While the palace nannies had bustled he and Thor to their warm, comfortable rooms, firelight licking the walls of tapestries and polished stone, Loki had secretly created a shadow of himself, and snuck out into the garden.

The cold hadn't fazed him. The snow never hindered him.

He had felt alien then, standing in a world of white fluff that crunched ever so pleasantly under his feet. Turning to admire his footprints, Loki wondered why it was that everyone else had hidden from the chill and beauty of the wintery display. He couldn't understand it, couldn't fathom it. It was just perfect, like being wrapped in the embrace of someone who loved you so much that they couldn't express it in words.

In the snow, the ache in his chest faded. The pain was forgotten. Suddenly, Loki felt at ease.

He had been scolded thoroughly.

"Elle," Loki wished he could understand why he was so interested in the child. When she didn't move, neither tensing, or flinching at his voice, he suddenly understood; she was a pale image of his young self. She was curious, tentative, lacking in confidence and in courage. She had seen much ill in her few years in this realm, and little good. But unlike Loki and his adopted brother and family, she had nobody to turn to but her brother. She had no home. She had no hope. "You watch the snow."

She nodded her head. Paper was scattered on the floor in a messy pile. She had scribbled badly drawn snowflakes and little green triangles with brightly colored circles. They were crude, and perhaps even ugly, but the simplicity and childishness of them made Loki long for something equally pleasant in his heart.

"It looks soft," Elle told him. "But it's not. It's crunchy. It looks warm, but it's really cold. Snow's like clouds."

"How so?"

"It looks like one thing, but it's something else." She replied quietly.

Loki had to admit that she was right. It was a simple concept, the deception of elements. He understood what she was saying. He wondered if the idea was advanced for her age. She seemed a little dull witted sometimes, but other times she seemed unusually sharp.

Humans were far more deceptive than he, Loki thought with a little smile.

"I don't like it," Elle suddenly mumbled. She slid down from her knees, sitting properly in the chair she'd been kneeling on.

"Why is that?"

"David never lets me play in it." Elle complained. "He says I'll get too cold and then, I'll get sick. Since we live in the shelter, if I get sick, we can get in trouble."

Loki had a little bit of trouble admitting that he didn't understand why.

"Explain it to me," he commanded.

Elle looked over her shoulder at the window. The snow blew so heavily that the buildings across the street were no longer visible.

Loki doubted that they were going to get any more business that evening.

"David isn't my Dad," Elle explained without looking back at Loki. "So child services can take my away from him if they want, if they think he's not taking care of me good 'nuff."

"What are… Child Services?"

"They're people who come and take children away from bad mommies and daddies," Elle was still looking away from him. "Or brothers and sisters, if there aren't any mommies and daddies."

Human society had things completely backward, as far as Loki was concerned. How could anyone ever consider taking a child away from their family? The human race was far worse than he initially thought.

"But it's okay," Elle reassured Loki. "David takes good care of me. He's not bad, but sometimes he's not very patient."

Loki had noticed.

"Do you have a family somewhere?" Elle looked up at Loki, little dark eyes searching for an answer before he could reply. "A mommy and a daddy and a brother and a sister?"

"A brother," Loki replied without thinking. "And you're very nosey."

"I know. David told me so." Elle wasn't bothered by the comment. Actually, she'd seemed unbothered by most of the commentary that Loki had used on her. "Is he a big brother or a little brother?"

"He's the elder," Loki sighed the reply, sinking into the fabric covered, rolling chair behind the desk. "If you know yourself to be too curious, why must you persist?"

"Because I can't find out if I don't ask." Matter of fact reply aside, Loki had to give the girl credit; at least she had an excuse for being annoying. "So you're the little brother?"

"Do I look small to you?"

"What's his name?"

"Thor, if you must know."

"Why do you talk like that?"

Loki drew back. The girl was even more annoying than the horseflies in the stables back in the palace. Groaning as he sank into the chair, he drew his lips back in a sneer.

"Because I do. Is there anything else you need ask?"

Elle paused, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully.

"Where are you from?"

Sighing in aggravation, Loki rubbed his temple with his middle finger.

"Somewhere far from here."

"Like… England?"

Loki had no idea where the Land of Eng was located, but he didn't think Elle would actually understand –or stop asking his questions- if he replied negatively to the inquiry.

"Yes. Like the Land of Eng," The prince shut his eyes against the curious child.

"So you're English?"

Groaning, Loki stood up from the chair, sending the chair rolling into the desk. "I have work to do." He turned towards the kitchen, and had his hand on the door to the office, preparing to shut it behind him when he heard Elle one more time.

"Thank you for being nice to me." The words made Loki stay his hand, and his step. Nice? Since when was he _nice_? Since never. The girl was delirious. She was mistaking his patience for kindness. If Elle really knew what Laufey's son had in mind for the human race, she would have screamed and cried and run for cover.

Stupid girl.


	11. Inferior and Incompetent

The shelters' power was still out. Loki was entirely too annoyed by that fact. Elle was complaining about being cold. She huddled into the mat that had been provided for the second night in a row, coat on, hat on, blanket draped over her.

The shelter wasn't _that_ cold, Loki was sure of it. But many of the others who huddled in the room were doing the same, snuggled deeply into blankets and jackets and hats as they slept on their makeshift beds.

David snuggled in beside his sister, stroking her hair and smiling, telling her about how it was all just fine, and better that they were just chilled than sleeping out in the wintery storm, which blew heartily just a few feet away. Outside the window, the wind and snow blew noisily. The dark was deep as the last flashlight went out.

Elle whined again, deep in her throat as she covered her face with her blanket, and shut her eyes tightly.

Snorting heavily through his nose, Loki shut his own eyes. Dreams invaded his head all too quickly. Golden halls, stolen kisses from a young lover, fierce eyes. Thunder. Lightning. Someone was slaying a frost giant. It roared with an unusually high pitch.

"Out!"

Out? Loki's eyes opened to the sound people were suddenly jumping up. The dragon was still screeching in his ear. People were panicking, including Elle and David. Elle grabbed Loki by the arm.

"What's going on?"

"Fire," David explained breathlessly. "Get up. We gotta go."

Fire? Loki sat up, taking in the panic around him as people were being rushed out of the room. David had Elle by the hand. She clung to him, free hand held tightly over her ear at the sounds of… whatever that screaming thing was.

Smoke filled the hallway of the building. Someone shouted for them to cover their mouths with their shirts. Glorious chaos came down on the humans in the building as they exited, stumbling into the snow. Loki followed in the confusion, losing sight of Elle and her brother.

Large trucks were pulling up in the deep drifts of snow. People were crying. Some were shouting for friends and loved ones. The red-head that Loki recognized as Rachel was calling out names, like a role-call from the book that had been kept at the entrance.

"Elle!" Loki turned around. He spotted David, hands cupped over his mouth. "_Elle!_" He met eyes with Loki, stumbling through the snow towards the taller man. "Loki! Have you seen Danielle?"

Loki's heart drew ice into his blood. "You had the girl." Asking where she was, was stupid. Obviously the boy had no idea.

"I lost her in the crowd, she let go of my hand." David's face was pale. He was shaking. "Oh Jesus. _Danielle!_" He screamed again. He should have carried her; should have had her in his arms. He should have had a better grip. Panic and fear welled deeply in David. What if she was still in the building?

Screaming for the girl would do no good, Loki knew. He took a look around the immediate area for the little dark haired child. He couldn't find her. People were shouting all around him, and his cries of concern would be drowned out.

Cursing his curious attachment, Loki moved away from David, pushing others out of his way. The girl was nowhere to be seen, and none were still coming from the building.

He didn't like the implications.

"We're still missing people!" Rachel told a man in a heavy suit. He said something back, muffled by a mask he was pulling up.

"A child is missing," Loki added, stopping the man.

"I'll do my best," The man promised. Somehow, Loki didn't think that any of the humans on the scene were competent enough for the job. He wondered if he had enough magic to help. Summoning a little bit of ice in one hand, he decided that he had to. Disappearing away from the crowd, Loki circled the building, looking for the source of the now brightly burning blaze.

He wouldn't do well in the intense heat. The shadows of himself that he could summon would only last a short time, especially if his power was focused on finding the girl and preventing the fire from spreading further.

It shouldn't have mattered. The crackle and wither of the fire made Loki put his arm up in defense. Nobody on this heap of rock should have mattered. He should have been leaving all of this entirely up to the people who were fighting the fire. The inside of the building was all smoke and heavy steam, making the heat more than unbearable.

The crackle of the building's walls and floor told him that the place was now not only dangerous, but also unstable. Why was he in this mess to begin with? No. This hero thing? Completely '_for the birds'_. Heroics were best left to his brother and the warriors that followed the new King around like puppies. Loki had no reason to be here. A human life wasn't worth risking his own. They were beneath him; inferior, irritating and unworthy of his attention.

_There she was. _

One of his shadows alerted him to the girls' position.

Lying on the floor, Elle's eyes were closed. There was soot on her face, marking where she had tried to keep the smoke from her eyes and mouth; smoke that was now threatening to overtake even the immortal prince. His stamina was better, his body; stronger, but the frost giant was still made for the cold. The intense heat and the flames that threatened to devour the two of them made him feel unusually weak and powerless.

He couldn't remember picking up the girl, but there she was, limp in his arms, head against his chest. The glamor of his mortal clothing vanished as he summoned a spell to keep the flames at bay. It wasn't working as well as he would have liked. Within moments, it wasn't working at all and Loki cursed his brother in every way he could think of for taking away his greater magics. He could have wiped out this entire fire in a second with all of the learned power at his disposal. Instead, he was reduced to keeping his head down, trying to ignore the burning of his eyes and throat, and how desperately he gasped for much-needed air.

Stumbling into the snow, Loki dropped. He tried not to think about the fact that he had dropped _on top of_ the girl that he had saved, or the fact that he had just risked his own life to save someone as annoying and pathetic as Elle. Eyes shutting against the soot of his own dark hair, Loki felt as though he needed a rather well deserved nap.


	12. A Word To Describe Everything

"That was quite the display of heroism," A heavy voice commented. Loki wanted to crush whoever it came from, just so he could go back to sleep. "Evil personified, saving a little homeless girl from a fire."

Feel free to die, Loki thought. Give Hel his best wishes. He was busy trying to rest and figure out why he felt like someone had run him over by a herd of _Bilgesnipe_.

"What's your game?"

Loki frowned, opening his eyes.

"I haven't a game," He replied darkly. "What I have is an aching head and a deep desire to murder you where you stand." Turning his head, he saw a dark skinned man; the same one who had dared attempt imprisoning him before. "Ah yes, Director Fury."

Narrowing a single good eye at the alien in the hospital bed, Nick Fury had his arms cross over his chest.

Moving to lift an arm, Loki found himself strapped to a bed. So this was what being a hero to a bunch of low-life humans got him? Pathetic, fabric restraints. He sneered.

"I see you haven't yet lost your touch in greeting, Director."

"What's the game?" Fury demanded again. "Why save the girl? Why not save the others? Why bother at all? If you're trying to prove that you're suddenly turning over a new leaf, it's going to take more than one act of charity."

It was a brilliant question, really. He was evil- or at least, that was the character that had been painted on him. Loki shouldn't have cared about saving one silly human. He had been safe in the snow. He could have vanished from the scene, leaving behind whatever guilt might have…

The thought gave Loki pause. Guilt? Guilt over what? He felt _no_ guilt.

Charity, Fury had called it. When had Loki ever felt _charitable_? There had been a time in his youth, when he and Thor had come to Earth in search of glory and fun… Maybe then he had felt charitable enough to help the humans out. But now? With the entire nine-realms believing him evil- what would have been the point?

"I give no charity, and I prove nothing. Have you not heard, Director? I do as I please." Loki shut his eyes again, sighing at the feel of the restraints on his wrists and ankles. He wondered if the man was aware that he, unlike when his brother had been cast out, had not been entirely stripped of his powers and his immortality. Most likely, he did. Fury was nothing, if not thorough. And knowing that Thor was a part of the organization that the Director was head of, there was little doubt otherwise.

"Yet you saved a little girl from a fire, putting yourself in danger." Was that _admiration_ that Loki just heard in the black mans' deep voice? Perish the thought!

"I tire of your imbecility." Loki spoke scornfully.

"I'm sure." Fury replied. "When you're _un_tired, there's a little girl waiting to see you."

"She holds no interest for me," Loki lied.

"I'm sure," the Director repeated as he left the room. "Just let me know when you want me to let you out of those restraints to see her."

There had been a word that Loki overheard Agent Barton use once. _Fuck_. Upon gleaning a little information regarding the word, he discovered that it was one of the few words in the English language that could be used to describe absolutely everything- people, places, things, situations…

Well, this entire situation was full of that word. His head was full of that word. His body was _completely_ full of that word. And Nick Fury could take that word and ride it with the horse he came in on. Loki wasn't sure he could remember the entirety of the insult that was supposed to go with that thought, but for the moment, everything else sufficed and it gave him a moment of peace.

"Brother."

Groaning with the affliction of his current situation, Loki wanted to find a nice dark hole and hide for a while. Was taking over Midgard really so bad that he not only had to live among these apes, but also deal with his would-be brother on a regular basis? Nope. He shouldn't have tried taking over the planet. He should have just blown the whole thing to oblivion. At least then he wouldn't be in the predicament he was in.

"You aren't."

"I am," Thor accused in a gentler tone.

"Come to mock me?"

"Nay." Thor closed the space between the door and bed in just a couple of strides. "I came to see that you were well. I worried for you."

Just as bad, Loki thought. "I do not desire your pity."

Thor said nothing.

"Unless you come to allow me return, then I bid you… _leave_." Loki shut his eyes again, trying not to see the face of the man who had been so worried over his brother that he had left his ruling throne for a short time to make sure he was alright. This was humiliating. It made his chest throb with an emotion that the trickster couldn't entirely make out. Was this heartache? Was this degradation? Was this _sorrow_?

"I cannot, brother." Thor replied. "You must serve your sentence. One mortal lifetime on Midgard to learn your lessons."

"And what lessons might those be?" Snarled Loki suddenly. "Should I learn humility, or humiliation?"

The words tore through Thor like a knife. He cared. He wanted Loki to return to Asgard, clean and free of all the ill that weighed him down like a mountain. He missed the tricky, sneaky, wise creature that his brother had once been. The _Aesir_ prince belonged at his side, helping him rule Asgard with wisdom and justice. It mattered not to Thor if this prince was Frost Giant, or not. All that mattered was that Loki was his family, and he still loved him dearly.

"I would have you remember yourself, brother." He spoke after long silence.

"I remember nothing of myself, for there was_ nothing_. I am a lie, a trick, an illusion to cover the beast that Odin found me to be."

"Father loves you."

"He loves his trophies," Loki whipped the words back frostily. "And I am but one of many."

Thor did not argue further. The muscle of his jaw twitched with longing. He was woefully inarticulate for the moment, and it pained him in shades that Loki would never know. He turned around, cape fluttering behind him in a ripple of crimson and velvet.

"The girl will be your mortal life." He uttered softly. "Learn well, brother." And then he shut the door.

Loki didn't watch Thor leave. He didn't think about the pain in his chest. He didn't test the restraints. He didn't call out for his brother to stay, or even for him to be damned.

But he did cry.


	13. Inconsolable Fears

Elle sat on a bench in the hospital cafeteria. She had a bandage around a good measure of her arm, but otherwise appeared as she always had. Pushing around a grape on her plate with a spoon, the girl seemed to be deep in thought.

"Where is your brother?" Loki sat down across from her. His body still ached, but he was healing nicely, just as he should have. Despite the primitive medicine on Midgard, they had done an okay job of making sure he was on the road to recovery. He couldn't say that he had enjoyed it, though. Putting small plastic tubes into one's hands just didn't seem like the best way to administer medication or fluids. He longed for the healers of Asgard.

It wasn't going to happen.

"He's talking to the social worker." Elle's voice betrayed a pain that her appearance did not. "They're going to take me away from him." She glanced up. "David said you went in to find me."

Loki didn't reply. He still wasn't really sure _why_ he had gone into the burning building to begin with. Certainly, it had something to do with the girl, but he wasn't so sure what it was. Not that it mattered now; he was going to be stuck with the child. Her lifespan was his sentence in this realm. Like it or not; Loki was going to have to deal with her.

"Thank you."

It was the second time she had thanked him directly. Did Elle really not know that he was a monster? Loki's silver tongue failed him.

"It's not fair," Elle whispered. "I don't want to be alone."

"You won't be alone," Loki replied. "Won't they send you to someone who can care for you?"

Elle nodded. "But he's my brother and I love him. It's not fair."

_It's not fair. He's my brother and I love him._

Loki felt a sense of wonderment and depressing realization at the statement. David had not risked his life to find his sister in the burning homeless shelter. He had not provided her with a home, or the safety that a child needed. He had been thoroughly incompetent… But Elle loved him unconditionally. She could see past his shortcomings, and only to the fact that he was her brother. It crossed Loki's mind that this might have been the painfully obvious expression that Thor had worn when he had begged him to go home. It hadn't mattered that Loki had stolen the tesseract, or that he had led frost giants into Asgard, or even that he had tried to crumble relations between all the realms… Only that he and Loki were brothers. That had been all that mattered.

Leaning forward on the table, Loki hunched ever so slightly to put his elbows down.

"Where will these… workers send you to?"

"Another family."

It seemed ridiculous that she should call a group of strangers her family. Hadn't he done it his entire life? But no, that wasn't it… They really _had_ been his family, hadn't they? Brow down in thought, Loki considered what his brother had said.

_The girl will be your mortal life_.

He was stuck in this realm for as long as the little girl was alive. What was stopping him from offing her right that instant? She was miserable and sad. Her life was a ghost of what it should have been. Killing her would have been a kindness. It wouldn't have made his sentence any shorter. And just what was he supposed to learn from the little thing, anyway? How to live? That was a joke.

Should've left her in the fire.

Then again, if he had, then he'd still be stuck in Midgard, wandering aimlessly, cursing his brother.

Drawing a deep sigh, Loki sat back.

"What would need to be done in order for you to remain with your brother?"

Elle shook her head. "I dunno. A home, I think."

"A _stable_ home." David cut into their conversation, sliding onto the bench beside his sister. "A stable environment that would be good for raising you." His quiet tone spoke screaming volumes to Loki. Obviously, the conversation hadn't gone well. "How's your arm?"

Elle looked down at the bandages.

"It hurts, but the nurse gave me some medicine, so it's not as bad."

"Is it from the fire?" Loki asked.

"Some of my coat melted. Did you know fabric can melt?" Elle tried to sound enthusiastic about it. It wasn't working. That being said, No; Loki had no idea that fabric could melt. He wondered what these humans were making their clothes from that it would melt when heated. How could that possibly be safe?

"I had no idea." It occurred to Loki that Elle looked a little bit fatter than she had before. "Have we been here long?"

"A week," David replied. "Elle was starting to get scared that you weren't going to wake up."

No wonder Thor had been so worried.

"Are they taking me away?" Elle whispered to her brother.

David faltered. He put his arms around the girl, wrapping her in an embrace that only a brother could give. He put his chin on top of her head and shut his eyes.

"I'll still see you," His voice wavered. "But for now, it's better if you're in a safe place."

Loki could see the hesitation in David's hands as he gave his little sister a squeeze.

"Look at it this way; you get a real bed again, right? No more asking Rachel to save you a cot. And you won't have to come into work with me every night." His eyes were shut. "You won't have to go down into the basement anymore, either."

"But I like being with _you_," Elle dropped her spoon, snuggling into her brother. "And I _like_ going into work with you."

Pulling back, David took Elle by the chin.

"Hey, listen…" He smoothed her hair with his free hand. "The shelter's gone, Elle. We have no place to go. It's winter and it's cold… and I can't let you sleep on the streets. It's not safe."

"Your brother only wishes your safety and well-being," Loki chose his words carefully. "You would do well to listen to him and accept what cannot be changed."

The sentiment triggered sudden wailing from Elle, who buried her face into David's chest. Loki felt ill in his chest for it. He folded his fingers together in thought. It had been the threat of being alone that was causing all of this. She was frightened, scared that she'd never see David again, whether that was the case or not.

And maybe unsurprisingly, Loki could easily put himself into her shoes. Just as Thor had experienced nightmares during the first time he had witnessed the Odin Sleep, Loki had struggled with fits of anxiety and fear that would consume him until Frigga soothed the boy-prince.

Certainly, both princes had known that Odin would wake again; The Odin Sleep was necessary. It helped the God King to replenish his strength and power. But there were always untreatable fears that he would just keep sleeping forever, and that Frigga, Thor and Loki would be left alone to fend for themselves.

It was an absurd notion of course. Even if something _had_ happened to Odin (Of which Loki supremely doubted was even possible) none of the three of them would have been left to care for themselves. Undoubtedly, Frigga would have held the throne until Thor came of age, and then it would have been passed to him.

The idea still gave Loki an unpleasant prickle in his neck.

But as children, both he and Thor had worried and fussed over it. They were inconsolable fears. The idea of being left alone was too much for any child to bear.

"Is it only shelter?" He asked David.

"What?" David crinkled his nose.

"These people… Do they only require stable shelter in order for you to remain together?"

"A stable home environment," David quoted the woman he'd been speaking to. "But we've been turned down for every apartment I've applied for. It's not that I can't pay the rent… Where are you going?" Loki had climbed out of the bench and was striding towards the door.

"To make arrangements."

"Arrangements?" David craned his neck as Loki vanished around the doorpost. Confused, he turned his attention back to Elle, focusing instead on comforting the little girl as she sobbed noisily into his chest.


	14. Something Different

"I'm curious as to why you think I'm going to even _consider_ your request."

"Because I've no doubt Thor would take ill to you leaving me without shelter." Loki replied. "If you require reimbursement for these arrangements, I've no doubt I can manage."

"Doing what? Washing dishes at a restaurant?" Fury snorted. "Do you have any idea what you're even saying? A minimum wage job isn't going to cover your rent and utilities in this city."

Loki wasn't sure just _what _minimum wage meant. He assumed it meant what it sounded like; the minimum one was to be paid for their efforts.

"And if there are two people working minimum wage?"

"You're not going to fraud the government by…"

Loki heaved a heated sigh through his nose. "All the assumptions you make, Director." He accused. "I had not planned perpetuating fraud on anyone. Can you do it?"

Nick Fury was nobody's plaything, but Loki was probably right about Thor being unhappy about the criminal being without shelter. Part of him wanted to tell the black haired God to put it where the sun didn't shine. The other part of him advised him strongly against the wrath of Thor.

"I can do it," He grumbled. "But don't expect a palace." Truthfully, there had been arranged quarters for Loki in the city; they had just been waiting for him to come to them, first. A lesson in humility, Fury thought. "I'll have Agent Jones bring you keys."

"As though you could manage it," Loki smirked. But he had to admit that he was grateful for the fact that Director Fury was even going to do this for him. He'd thank the man when Asgard froze over in a solid sheet of ice; Never. He left the room with graceful steps that showed how pleased he was with the situation.

Catching sight of himself in the polished reflection of an elevator, Loki paused. He looked different. Stepping forward to look at his distorted image, he narrowed his green eyes at the sight of himself. He was back to wearing those mortal clothes that fit him well enough. He was still tall, slender, fit and handsome. His hair and skin had not changed. His features were still slim and pale; still just as pleasing to the eye as he'd ever been.

Yet there was something a little less loathing about the sight. Something… _nicer_; more pleasant.

Pinching his lips together tightly, Loki stepped back, turning away from it. He knew what he looked like. This was ludicrous. There was nothing different about him, or his appearance.

_You will always be my handsome little prince_.

Words from his mother rose to the surface of Loki's mind. They were a small comfort. He caught sight of David leading Elle back to the room she had been staying in. After a week, why was she still here? Unless the burns were severe, shouldn't they have sent her on her way? Or maybe the workers that she had mentioned were making her stay until they could put her somewhere.

No matter the case, Loki would take the initiative to let the siblings know what had transpired.

Elle sat in her bed as a man changed the bandages on her arm. She hissed in pain as fresh tissue came away from her arm. Tears ran down her face.

"I know," The man spoke in soothing tones. "I'm going to try and do this as painlessly as possible, alright?"

Loki watched from the doorway, until David nodded him in. The sight turned his stomach. The burn was still relatively fresh looking. The skin had peeled and become flat looking blisters. Elle would have the scars for the rest of her life. One patch looked worse than the rest. It was ill-colored and large, covering all of Elle's upper arm.

"Third degree burn," David explained quietly. "She said that something had hit her, igniting her coat. She pushed it off, but it had set her coat on fire. The rest of them are all second degree burns from where the coat melted into her skin."

"It hadn't been in flames when I found her," Loki replied. He peered down at Elle's hands. The one that she had been using to eat with was healing. He hadn't noticed it when he had spoken with the girl in the cafeteria.

"I fell."

"We think she smothered the flames when she fell down," David explained. "You passed out from smoke inhalation after you brought her out, so we didn't know what position you'd found her in… But that seems to be the consensus."

Loki didn't reply.

"It's okay," Elle looked up at him. "It looks scary, but I can't feel a lot of the big one." No, it wasn't okay. It wouldn't _be_ okay. Not only had her idiot brother failed to provide the girl with all the basic necessities of life, but he had caused Elle to be injured in such a way that she would wear her scars for life. Loki felt like going on a tirade.

Unimpressed didn't even _begin_ to cover how Loki felt over the whole thing.

"It's strange, though," The doctor admitted as he gingerly applied a topical ointment to Elle's skin. "Most synthetic fabrics are hard to extinguish once they're ignited. Just dropping shouldn't have done the trick." He smiled at Elle. "You were very lucky."

From the look on Elle's face, this hadn't been the first time she'd been told such a thing.

Standing by and cursing his lack of medical skills, Loki would have given a lot to have his hands on some of the healing stones of Asgard. The pain of getting bandages changed and the painful looking healing process of the big mass of melted tissue at the top of Elle's arm; the little girl didn't deserve it.

"I have arranged lodgings," He announced suddenly. "They are mine, but I will share them with you, if it means you will not need to be separated."

David and Elle stared at the man. There were no words to describe the emotions that covered each of their faces all at once. Relief. Joy. Worry. Concern. Happiness.

"If you had a place to stay, why stay at the shelter with us?"

"It is not something I care to discuss," Loki spoke down to David. The human male wasn't worthy of his time, his attention, or Elle's affection… But despite his shortcomings- of which there were many, in Loki's view- David loved his sister and wanted nothing but the best for her. "I presume you would rather be together."

"Yes. Yes, of course!" David stood, grabbing Loki by the shoulders in a display of thanks that the _Aesir_ could have lived without. "Thank you. Thank you so much, man!"

Brushing away David's aggressive thanks, Loki nodded just once, putting his eyes back on Elle, who was smiling happily, despite the discomfort from getting her burns cleaned, anointed and bandaged again. Tears were still running down her face.

Running his fingers back through his black hair, Loki sighed. What was he doing? Why did he care? The questions were starting to assault him from all directions. Did he want to watch the mortal girl grow up, so that he could keep track of his time as a prisoner on Midgard? Was he supposed to learn something from her? Just what could some human from Midgard teach him, anyway? He was millennia old to any of the oldest people in the realm- What could _any_ of them teach _him_?


	15. Birthday Talk

It had been three weeks since Loki had said that Elle and David could come and live with him. Elle had needed to stay in the hospital for treatment of the third degree burn on her upper arm. And then, there had been investigations regarding the housing that had been generously provided for the siblings.

Social workers came to the apartment several times, quizzing both David and Loki at intervals. Where was she going to school, was she to have her own room, and was David aware that they would come in from time to time to make sure things were running smoothly?

The apartment wasn't a penthouse, and it wasn't furnished as well as his quarters in Asgard, but Loki figured he'd been in worse places. The shelter came to mind. It seemed to pass inspections and questions for the people who came by to check it.

The two bedroom apartment was plenty spacious, but somehow David felt that everyone would get on everyone else's nerves before long in the closed in place. He listened to Elle as she flounced happily on the bed in the second room. She was chanting something noisily as she flopped, punctuating each word with a new bounce.

"Careful with your arm, Elle."

"Yup!"

"She is… easily pleased." Loki commented.

"You're her hero, dude." David shifted uncomfortably. "Twice over. First saving her from the fire, then helping us stay together… Seriously. Thank you. I owe you."

Loki hummed his response, sitting down in a chair at the small kitchen table. Oh, David owed him, alright. He'd figure out how to get blood from the boy when he was a little less tired.

"Hey David!" Elle came out of the bedroom, breathless and mussed from her playing The arm that was wrapped in bandages was in a little sling. Nearly all of the second degree burns were healed enough to stay open to the air. The third degree burn was still bad, but the doctor had deemed Elle well enough to care for it at home between doctors appointsments. "I call the bed!" With a maniacal giggle, she raced back into the room, jumping back onto the double mattress that was in the middle of the room. The two men could hear pleased shrieking.

"Call it what?" Loki made a face. "Tis a bed."

David laughed. Loki still didn't understand, and now he was annoyed at the young man for laughing at him. How dare he? He glanced across the table, and was taken by the sudden serious look on David's face. It was as though his mind had suddenly, instantly, turned elsewhere. He could have asked the boy what was troubling him, but somehow, Loki wasn't sure he wanted to know. He did, but he didn't. It was a situation where he had actually longed for some nature of intelligent conversation.

"It's your bed, anyway!" David shouted back.

Loki would never understand humor on Midgard.

"Hey, uh…" David ran his fingers through his dirty hair. "I've gotta go out for a little while."

"If you're asking my permissions, you needn't." Loki uttered. He did wonder what David was doing, though. "Do as you please. You and your sister are free to come and go as you wish. You are not my prisoners." Although that would have been the preferred way of dealing with most humans.

"We lost everything in the fire, except the money I had in my pocket." The young man continued. "I need to get Elle clothes." He sighed.

"I haven't any money," Loki replied. "So asking would be…"

"No, that's not the trouble," David laughed shortly. "I still have a bank account from when I lived at home with Dad. I have money saved that we were trying to use to get our own place."

"Then the point of this conversation?"

"I'm just saying I gotta get Elle some clothes." David glanced over his shoulder. "But she doesn't have a winter coat to go out and about. I'm just wondering if you could watch her for a little while."

Watch her? First he had to play hero to some stupid little girl, then he offered them lodgings that should have been his own, and now the boy dared try to use him as a babysitter? Did he look like a doormat to anyone? A pack horse? This was absurd. There was no way he was going to watch some seven year old human girl just because…

His shoulders fell. Loki sighed. She had no coat. He wasn't going to make the girl venture out into the cold and wind without a proper coat. David had sheltered her with his own coat between the cab and the building, but taking her out without one at all just didn't seem wise.

"I will." He mumbled. How difficult could watching a little girl be? He, who had battled giants, trolls, beasts and even matched up against his own brother; what chance was there that he couldn't handle a little girl? Then again, this was unknown territory. Uncharted waters. It had always appeared that Elle entertained herself.

David appeared only mildly relieved by the comment.

Ten minutes later, the older sibling was gone, and Elle had moved into the room that Loki was reluctantly sharing with David.

"I thought David was sleeping in my room," Elle looked out the doorway.

"Unfortunately, no." Loki grumbled. What kinds of things did little girls like to do? Elle was all over the place most of the time. "Come out from there."

She obeyed, looking a little meek at the command. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"You've been real nice to David and me," Elle rolled on her feet, up and down several times. "So I should be good, right?"

"Correct," Loki agreed.

Elle got up to the table where Loki was brooding. She set her bandage arm on the table and smiled at the man with dark hair.

"When's your birthday?"

Confused, Loki didn't reply. Birthday? Right. To celebrate the date of ones birth.

"My birthday is soon," Elle told him. "The Fifteenth."

"I see." Loki uttered.

"When's yours?"

Rolling his eyes at the question, Loki shut his eyes. On Asgard, there hadn't been a particular day chosen to celebrate the birth of either prince. Every few seasons or so, the people of Asgard would have a weeks' worth of celebrations to celebrate the royal family as a whole, none individually.

And on Midgard, Thor, Odin and Frigga all had days of the week named for them.

"I don't know." Loki muttered.

"You don't know your own birthday?" Elle looked horrified by the idea. "Really?"

Loki groaned shortly, letting his mind wander. The girl hadn't been in his possession for more than fifteen minutes, and she was already driving him to madness.

"I'm very old. I don't think about birthdays any longer." That was close enough to the truth to matter, right? Obviously Elle didn't think so, because she leaned closer, peering at him very closely with dark eyes. Glancing up, Loki met her eyes for a split second. They were brown; he'd never noticed before. Sighing when he realized that she wasn't going to accept the answer, he continued. "It was snowing when I was born."

Of course it had been snowing when he was born; he was a _Frost Giant_ for Valhalla's sake! But if it gave the girl an idea of what she wanted, then so be it.

"David said the same thing about my birthday, too!" Elle seemed pleased by the information. "He said that there was this really huge snowstorm when I was born, and that Mommy almost didn't get to the hospital in time!"

This made Loki laugh. It was little more than a chuckle, but the sound made Elle light up.

"Then we share something in common," Loki agreed.

"Uh-huh!" Elle sank back down into her chair. Her smile vanished under a thin veil of pain from moving her arm. "So maybe we have the same birthday, too!"

Unlikely, Loki thought with a little bit of annoyance. Still, the girl had stopped with the questions for the moment.

"There are… a lot of days in a season," He told her. "It's not likely."

"But it could be true! You said you don't remember your birthday." She was determined. "And it was snowing when you were born and snowing when I was born, so maybe!"

"But unlikely," Loki countered.

"Maybe!" Elle persevered.

"You are a very irritating child." Loki snapped. The girl's lack of response pleased him for all of three seconds, until he realized that her eyes were turning watery, and her bottom lip was quivering. Lamenting at the fact that he had probably just made his situation even worse, Loki scrambled to cover for himself. "I mean that it is hard to deal with your inability to take no for an answer."

The cheeks were turning pink now. Watery eyes wavering, Elle crossed her unbandaged arm over herself.

"It is not a bad thing, Danielle. In fact; there are times when…_ persistence_ could be considered an admirable trait." Persistence was putting it lightly. And why was he even bothering to try and keep her from melting down entirely? Gods help him; Loki actually cared if the child cried because of him.

"R-Really?" Elle was sniffling back her tears and runny nose.

"Yes, really. Just… Don't cry."


	16. Old Maid and Fairy Tales

Faltering, and not for the first time, Loki's hand wavered, his brow puckered in thought… And then he chose the card. Curse the gods! The picture of a little old woman in cartoon-form stared up at him with missing teeth, which meant…

"You're the Old Maid!" Elle got a sick sort of glee out of seeing Loki's face when he drew the Old Maid card for the second time in a row. She was giggling as she stacked up the cards for yet another, no doubt further embarrassing, game.

Loki grieved for the loss of his pride. Since when was he- a prince, a king, a god, an immortal- reduced to playing cheap card games with little children? And why had he let the child talk him into such a degrading game, anyway? _Old Maid_. What kind of game was Old Maid? Did he look old? Or like a woman, for that matter? Okay; he was old. Ancient, even, by human standards. And sure, maybe he had feminine features, and _yes _he could glamor his appearance to look like that of a lady, but that didn't mean that he was a spinster of any sort! He'd had his fair share of lovers in his time… Some less favorable than others, admittedly; but that was beside the point!

Loki Laufeyson was absolutely _not_ an Old Maid, cards be damned!

"Another one?"

"I have a better idea," Loki tried on his silvery smile. "Let's play a different game."

Elle squirmed in her chair.

"What kind of game?"

"The kind where you play a game quietly, as I read a book, and we both revel in the silence that comes with."

This earned the taller man a hard stare. Obviously, the idea wasn't going over as well as he'd hoped.

"No?"

"No."

"Do you know not any other diversions?" Perhaps something that didn't involve insulting him?

Elle sat quietly, continuing to stack and tap her deck of cards until it was in a satisfactory neat set.

"Can you… read me a story?"

Read a story? Was she kidding? Loki watched as Elle put the cards away in their little box. He drummed his fingers on the table in thought, licking his lips. Him? A storyteller? Well, there were plenty of stories to be had from the times of his youth, including a rather embarrassing story about Thor in their mothers' clothing. That might prove entertaining, but it was unlikely that the girl would understand just _why_ Loki had managed to get Thor into Frigga's finest. Or how he managed to fit into it, for that matter.

"I can tell a number of tales," He answered at last.

"Do you know Cinderella?"

What in Hel's name was Cinderella? "I… Cannot say as I do."

"Snow White?"

Seriously? Everyone knew that Snow was white.

"No."

Elle looked disappointed.

"The Frog Prince? Little Red Riding Hood?"

"I am not familiar with any of these tales." And just why a frog would be crowned prince was beyond him.

Elle huffed noisily and folded her arms, sinking into the chair.

"Do you know _any _fairy tales?"

Loki took a deep breath, searching the very depths of his mind for anything that the nursemaids, or his mother had ever told he or Thor as children. There had been plenty of tales of battle and adventure, and sometimes Frigga had told him stories of great wizards and magicians… But he didn't know if any of them were appropriate for a little mortal like Elle.

"I know… tales." He confessed. "If you would like to hear them, then I will gladly recount them."

Elle lit up. Funny how such a simple expression could leave Loki feeling a little more at ease over watching the girl.

"There once was a wise man…"

To Loki's surprise, Elle sat down on the couch, listening to the entirety of his story with wide eyes and a tight grip around a throw cushion. She drank every word he spoke, as though she had been put under a spell. For Elle, Loki's careful, purposeful speaking, and his accent made all the stories more real. She sat beside him, watching and listening without as much as a fidget. She didn't even stop him to ask him how the wise man had turned into a bird, or how he had turned the beautiful lady into a nut to carry away. She just sat and listened to every syllable, entranced by the story.

And when Loki was done, she continued to sit in stunned silence.

"The wise man was brave." Elle spoke at last. "But he was very naughty to start, wasn't he?"

Loki fought a frown. Of _course_ he'd been naughty when he'd tricked Idunn away from her place. Well, not even naughty- it had just been a bit of fun. No matter how felt about it, though, Loki knew he needed to keep his opinion at a minimum. Telling Elle stories of his youth was well and good, but telling her that _he _had been the so-called wise man in the stories was probably not a good idea.

"What's Midgard? And Argard?"

"Asgard," Loki corrected. Human children knew nothing of the nine realms. How irritating. He supposed he'd have to educate the child on these things. "Don't you know anything about the nine realms?"

"What's a realm?"

Groaning, Loki put his face in her hand, shaking his head. How was it even possible that these people couldn't understand something as simple as the nine realms? Their ancestors had; and easily at that. They had accepted that they weren't the be-all-end-all in the universe. But the humans of this era… They were cocky, proud and completely, if blissfully, unaware of how insignificant they were.

"When the wise man took Ethun back, did she love him for it?"

Hah; that was a joke, right? Idunn? Love him?

"She has a husband. And her name is Idunn. Ee-Th-oo-n," He annunciated the word for Elle, waiting for her to imitate him.

"A husband?"

"His name is Bragi."

"And is he from the same place as Idunn?"

"He is."

"Which is Asgard?"

"Yes."

"Which is a realm?" Elle made a face. "Tell me what a realm is?"

Okay; storytime meant that Elle was only silent for as long as Loki was talking. Though Loki was all for listening to himself speak, there was only so much he was willing to put up with. Then again, if it kept her from bouncing up and down, talking constantly and forcing him to play degrading games of Old Maid… A lesson in realms it was.

Reclining in his seat, Loki thought back to his own days as a child, when All Father had taught he and Thor about the nine realms.

"Imagine a tree," He started.

And Elle listened.


	17. Miserable and Maddening

_Imagine a tree… A very large tree- The biggest your feeble little mind can imagine. Now, on that tree, there are nine very large, very different fruits. _

That had been all it took to spark an insatiable curiosity in Elle.

He wasn't sure if it was a pleasant surprise, or extraordinarily frustrating. She wasn't leaving him alone. It had been three days, and the child was constant in her queries. She followed him around the apartment, hammering him with questions about how people could travel from one tree-fruit to another. Were there other fruits? Why were there only nine? And did the people all look the same, or were they different?

On the third day, the day before Elle's birthday, Loki couldn't take it anymore. He had just explained for the fifth or sixth time how the bifrost worked, and she just wasn't getting it. She asked him again if she understood right- which she didn't; Loki lost grip on the last of his patience.

"_Enough_!"

Elle stared, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. David had been sitting at the kitchen table, figuring up his hours for the week, but he looked up, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Dude. Calm down."

Loki felt his hackles rise far quicker than they ever had before. How dare this mortal tell _him_ to calm down?

"Calm down? Tell your child to stop following me about like some hound!" Turning his snarl on the girl, he said; "I'm not a library, girl! If you want answers, go read a book, or is that too complicated for your soft little head to manage?"

David's eyes widened. Elle sprinted to her room, shutting the door loudly behind her.

"What the hell, man?" He put down his pen and stood up. "Shit. She's barely eight."

"She's _maddening_. Have you never taught that girl any tact? Subtlety?"

David frowned. "Speaking of tact…" He retorted. "Maybe Elle needs to learn not to aggravate, but I think _you're _the one that needs some tact."

That was _it_.

"I suggest you consider careful where you tread, boy." Oh, this mortal life punishment could take a one way trip to Hel's domain. He was going go on a murdering rampage. Just how much patience was he expected to have, anyway?

"And I suggest you learn how to speak to kids," David replied. He was ready for a fight, his hear was pumping in his chest like a combustion engine. There was something about Loki that told him that he was going to have to be ready for one. "If she's annoying you, why didn't you just tell her like you did before? You didn't need to snap at her like that."

"She doesn't understand any other way!"

"No! I guess she doesn't!" David's voice rose. "Because that's the only way people like you know how to react, right? Yell at a kid, slap 'em around once or twice, see if they calm down and do what they're told, right?" His arms had dropped to his sides, fists balled in furious consideration.

Loki paused. Blood was running through his ears, partially deafening him to his common sense.

"I never touched her. You're mad." He accused.

"No. But that's how it starts." David was shaking. "And I'm warnin' you, Loki; you talk to her like that again, and I'll lay you out."

"I'll wish you well with that endeavor." Loki didn't bother pushing up his sleeves. Putting the boy in his place would feel good. "But I think you know not what you're getting into, boy."

"_Boy_?"

The bedroom door opened a little bit. Elle was watching, one eye barely visible in the crack.

David took a step towards Loki. Loki didn't move, but a little grin started to spread across his face. Oh yes; this was _just _what he needed. He'd never be able to cut entirely loose with the young man, but being allowed to have a scuffle would help relieve some stress, wouldn't it? He flexed his fingers in preparation. Suddenly he could understand why Thor was open to any challenges that had come his way as a youth.

"Please don't."

David stopped, glancing over his shoulder. Elle hadn't moved, and the door hadn't opened any more than the crack, but both he and Loki knew that it had been her who had spoken.

"I'll leave Loki alone." She shut the door with a snap. "But please don't fight."

"**_Fuck_**."

Loki blinked out of his mindset, turning his glance on the door that Elle was no doubt hiding behind. He had never been shouted at by either Frigga or Odin, and though he and Thor had been in a number of scuffles (of which most ended in ties), they had only genuinely fought and argued a handful of times… Most of them recent.

Elle had reacted as though she had seen her brother do this more than once.

"You scared her." David accused, turning his back on Loki to check on his sister.

"It would appear that I frighten a number of people," Loki muttered, turning his attention to the microwave and the cup of instant coffee inside. "Being a monster, one does so frequently."

This was it; this was what everything was coming down to. He had been shoved into this peaceful, perfectly _normal_, mortal life, and now he was cracking under the tiny pressure of a little girl following him around. He was supposed to be a monster, a beast, an evil demon that children were supposed to be frightened of, and Elle was completely unaware. She thought of him as another normal person, someone she could try to be friends with.

That got to Loki far more than he expected. He was washing dishes at a miserable little job, folding clothes in a miserable little apartment, taking his punishment on this miserable little planet and pretending like everything was just coming up roses. The pretense was wearing him thin and irate and Elle had been the one to finally push him far enough make him raise his voice; something Loki generally didn't like doing.

David didn't reply. Loki hadn't expected him to. He listened to the boy knock on his sisters' door.

"Come on, Elle…" He muttered against the door. "You know we weren't gonna fight."

They most certainly _had_ been going to get physical, Loki thought. There hadn't been a doubt in his mind that he and David were going to exchange blows. In a way, he regretted that they hadn't. It would have established a chain of command in the house, at least. But was one necessary? It was hard to tell sometimes. Nobody was in charge, it seemed, and both he and David had shared the majority of the household needs. They had fallen into a line, working without any major complaints.

But Elle was going to drive Loki into further madness, he figured. She had latched onto him in the same way a leech clung to a host. She would try and suck knowledge out of him, and he would try to pry her off. Shy of fire, it wasn't going to happen.

He needed a break from these mortals. He needed a fight, a full on, fists contacting, bloody-the-enemy brawl. How strange, Loki wondered. He had never been one to get excited for a battle, but here he was actually longing for one. He wondered if Thor had rubbed on him, or if he had really enjoyed recent conflicts that much.

Thor had always been the one who itched for conflict. He would pace the halls of _bilskirnir_, hammer in hand, feet pounding against the polished marble of the floors, waiting for someone to give him word of something going on that he could get into. When word would finally come of a battle or skirmish somewhere, he'd leave in a thrum of thunder and lightning and return sweaty and happy, relieved for the time being.

Loki had always skirted the search for fights. He had followed Thor into numerous battles, whether he had wanted to or not, but he too, had returned, pumped full of adrenaline and victory, drunk on the rush of using his harshest magics and breaking loose for a while.

The microwave beeped at him for the second time, and he opened it, tasting the bitter stuff before curling his lips down at the taste. It wasn't what he wanted.

David hadn't been wrong in his not-so-carefully thought out word. It was the only one that Loki could think of as he dumped the coffee down the sink and left the mug on the counter.

"I'm leaving," He announced without waiting for a reply. David was still trying to get Elle to open the door, and frankly, Loki didn't give a damn. The apartment door shut behind him heavily on its own. He stalked down the hallway, putting his hands in his pockets and his head down.

He needed to cut loose for a little while.


	18. A Child's Toy

"You smell like piss and y'look like shit, man."

Loki smiled at the comment as David offered him a bag of frozen vegetables. Yes, perhaps he _did_ look like something from a horses arse. Without anything but his minor magic to aide in conflict, the fight with a group of large, hairy neandralithic men had been _considerably_ one sided. But he had walked away, and the men had gotten the surprise of their lives when there had suddenly been three of him versus the six of them.

Still; did he ever feel better! Sure, it had been a great deal more physical than Loki had been accustomed too, but the entire thing had left him feeling invigorated and powerful. He'd needed it. And _they _had started it, so the trickster knew good and well that his brother wasn't going to come down on him for it.

Unless Thor found out that Loki had been the one who had instigated the drinking contest. Then the King might complain. Not _his _fault if those idiots couldn't hold their alcohol well enough to understand the difference between sarcasm and seriousness.

_It looks like a child's toy!_

Loki had been only _half_ joking about the man's vehicle. He had seen a number of smaller models of the strange looking beast in a store window. Obviously, this was an insult to the man, his 'chopper' and his pride. Possibly his manhood as well, of which Loki figured he was severely lacking if he was so defensive about his so-called ride.

Blows had followed.

And now, eye throbbing, lip swelling, Loki felt worlds better than he had when he'd left the house the night before. He'd woken up in an alley somewhere, the state of his earlier drunkness on his clothes, radiating from him like so much stink. It had been morning, which meant he'd missed a shift at work. Gary would be cross with him. Loki didn't even care. He got to his feet, and strode home with the pride of a warrior.

Elle was in school. For that, Loki supposed he was grateful. She didn't need to see him looking in the kind of state he did. His head was aching just a little bit. He didn't think he could deal with her barrage of questions and –no doubt- worry until he had a hot shower, a cup of coffee and something to eat.

But first, David was making sure he wasn't majorly injured.

"Put those on your eye." David snorted. "Let me guess; First rule of fight club is..?" At the lack of response from Loki, he shook his head. "You don't talk about fight club,"

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Loki replied. He was still smiling, despite his swollen lip.

"Fight club? Brad Pit? Bunch of guys beating each other bloody…" David sat down at the table, across from the dark haired man. "It's a movie. You've never seen it?"

"I don't partake in those types of activities."

"Yeah. I see that." Rolling his eyes, David made a face at Loki's speech. "You should watch it sometime. You look like you were just _in_ it."

They sat in silence as Loki held the icy vegetables to his eye.

David spoke first.

"Sorry about getting in your face like that last night."

Narrowing his un-blackened eye at the young man, Loki tried to determine if David was being sarcastic or not. Upon consideration, he replied in kind.

"I will also apologize." This was a first. "I am aware your sister meant no ill. I have simply been…" He tried to find accurate words. "Under considerable amounts of stress." That was close enough to the truth, wasn't it? Even if he had explained everything to the mortal boy, there was no way he'd ever understand what Loki was going through. But there were questions lingering in the back of his mind.

"I require an answer regarding something you spoke of last evening."

David grunted in reply.

"You had mentioned that shouting was how 'it' began."

Visibly slouching, David put his forehead between his thumb and middle fingers.

"If you're asking me if Elle's ever been hit; no. She lived with Mom until she died." He sighed. "But Dad… Dad would get real drunk, and real loud… and then he'd get real mean. He slapped me around a bunch of times 'till I ran off to live with Mom and Rick."

"Was this why your mother lived with another man?"

"I don't think he ever hit Mom," David confessed. "Or if he did, she never told me. She seemed pretty surprised when I told her about it. Course by then I was old enough that the courts didn't really have a say in who I lived with. And Elle was still little, so she never saw any of it."

Human relationships confused Loki endlessly.

"Your mother was with another man?"

David nodded. "Yeah. She and Dad got divorced when I was little. She always told me they just never saw eye-to-eye. But he wanted custody of me, and because of her circumstances at the time, the courts gave it to him."

"In Asgard, if a woman wishes to part from her husband, she takes the children and the home. The man is the one who is expected to depart." That was for commoners, as far as Loki knew. He had never done down into the lower echelons of Asgard, preferring to stay far away from the affairs of the more common folk. It was part of the reason he'd never seen anyone younger than he or Sif, he supposed. Everyone who lived in the Palace were considered Gods. Why would Gods mix with common folk?

David didn't question Loki's response.

"Well, normally the court would have given Mom custody. But at the time, I guess she was seeing a doctor for a bunch of mental stuff. I dunno- Dad never told me what was going on, really. Just that she had needed a lot more attention than he could give her." He sat up. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I was just pissed, man. I didn't actually think you'd hit Elle."

No, Loki agreed. He'd never hit some defenseless child. Elle was irritating and a pain in his neck, but he'd never consider striking her… No matter how tempting it might have been from time to time.

Silence befell the two of them again.

"Elle's pretty upset, though."

Loki was surprised to find an ache in his chest at the words.

"She thinks you hate her." David scrambled to cover. "I told her that you don't, that you're still not used to us and all… But she wouldn't stop fussing about it." He sighed, rapping his knuckles on the tabletop. "She really likes you, so you yelling at her really put her out."

A helpless sound escaped Loki's throat. He tried to concentrate on the cold of the bag against the heat of his eye, and how his lip tasted faintly of bad Midgardian ale and blood, but it didn't work. Now that he thought about it, his shoulder hurt as well and he was still from sleeping in an alley. None of it was distracting enough from the fact that David had sounded so pained over his younger siblings' upset.

"I will speak to her when she arrives from school."

"Told Gary you were sick last night, by the way." David stood up. "You owe me."

Surprise struck Loki in the face. The human had covered for him? Why? Had they not been fighting like children before? Had David not threatened to 'lay him out'? There had been a distinct air of fury when he'd left, so why bother covering for him.

"Why?"

"Huh?" David was turning on the sink to wash the couple of breakfast dishes.

"Why did you lie on my behalf?" Loki demanded.

David gave a little 'hah' and put soap into the water.

"Dude. People fight; it happens. You got mad, I got mad, whatever man. But I'm still gonna cover for you because you're our friend."

Well. That was new.


	19. Chokehold

Elle didn't speak to Loki when she got home from school. She marched straight to her room and shut the door behind her. Loki would have stepped in after her, but the lock slid closed and Elle said nothing to him when he knocked.

"It's her birthday," David told him. "She can't stay in there all night. I managed to score cake out of Gary last night. If I tell him she didn't even eat it, he's gonna come find you himself."

Birthday? _Right_. She had mentioned it previously, that her birthday was coming up. What did humans do when they celebrated their days of birth, anyway? On Asgard, he, Thor, Odin and Frigga would have been treated to a feast. People would have brought gifts and sent out beautiful whores to dance for he and his brother. Somehow, he didn't think Elle would be interested in women dancing seductively. No; highly unlikely. Impossible, even.

So what kinds of things did Elle like? He knew she liked stories. She had been a regular little glutton for knowledge. Was it appropriate to offer children more stories as gifts? Hard to tell. Loki would have asked David, but he didn't know that he wanted to admit that he was still faltering where the girl was regarded.

Groaning, Loki tried to hurriedly think of something. Thinking back to a time when he and Thor had been quite small, he remembered that Thor had drawn him a crude picture of the two of them riding horses into battle. That wouldn't do, either. Frigga had gifted him a library as an adult; not for a birthday, but merely on a whim. That was a little closer, but there was no way that Loki was going to manage to gift the little girl with an entire library. Not a chance. Not only could he never manage such a feat in Midgard without the resources, but there was no way at all the girl could eve appreciate it at her age.

Sighing deeply, he picked up his coat and headed for the door.

"Hey, where're you going? Not back to Fight Club?"

Loki snorted. "Hardly. I'll be back soon." He didn't know where he was going, or what he was going to do for Elle's birthday. For that matter, it shouldn't have had any effect on him. The birthday was a celebration by the boy and his sister, something of which Loki shouldn't have had any hand in. He stepped quickly along the hallway and down the steps that took him to the ground floor.

The weather hadn't changed much in the last few weeks. It had remained bitterly cold to most, though the snow had ceased falling, and just remained in partially blinding, partially sooty and icy patches along the streets. Loki didn't mind the cold. He felt it working into his bruised eye and lip, balming the pain for the moment being.

Shop windows offered him nothing. Toys seemed childish, clothing seemed shallow, but books… Books were at the least entertaining, but they were also educational, useful, and working tools. Entering a book store, Loki looked around. They were sorted into sections. Fiction, non-fiction, children's books, science, math, business, classical literature. This was too complicated.

He tried searching for something regarding the nine realms. Elle had been so genuinely curious that it only made sense that he find her a book to read on the subject. The historical section gave him nothing. He tried the section labeled off for sciences, which also yielded nothing.

By chance, he spotted an older woman with an arm full of books that appeared to have Asgardian writing on the spines. Upon closer inspection, it was a bastardized version of the writing he used in his own realm, but it was close enough. She directed him to a section called _New Age_.

New Age? Try Old Age. _Ancient_ age. He scoffed at the dribble of books on speaking to the dead, UFO sightings and cryptozoology. Finger landing on a book with a title that insinuated hidden knowledge, he flipped through. Pausing at a picture of a pyramid, he read the paragraph underneath before promptly placing it on another shelf in disinterest. Why was it that humans were so fascinated with the idea of the end of the world? It was senseless. They'd die when it happened anyway, so why worry about it? Why not just keep living? Scanning further titles, he found too many books on the depressing topic.

This wasn't working. There were no books at all on Asgard. It seemed stupid. Humans had worshiped he and his family as Gods; how could they not- _wait a minute._ Hand settling on a book of Norse Mythology –that had to be a joke, right?- Loki pulled out a thin book with a scrawling image of Thor standing in the thumb of an enormous glove. Scanning the first few pages, he saw entries on himself, his brother, his mother and his father. The problem was that they were, for the most part, terribly inaccurate. In what reality were he and Thor cousins? Certainly, there had been an argument with one of his tutors that the Giant races and the Aesir were related, but that had been ages ago.

And besides that, who cared? Why did Thor need to be the only one painted as a hero? Loki had done his fair share of so-called heroic deeds. Yet these book spoke only of his follies, while they mentioned nothing of Thor and his fair share of the same.

_Infuriating_.

Huffing heavily, Loki stalked out of the section of books. He would have left the store empty handed if he hadn't spotted a book out of the corner of his eye on the bargain table. It was a simple thing, without decoration on the brown cover, and it was half off.

It would do in a pinch, he decided, and picked it up.

Elle was sitting in the living room when Loki returned. She was holding a stuffed toy in her lap and looking relatively pleased with herself until she heard the door shut.

Loki didn't miss her visible cringe when he put his keys on the counter. The paper bag in his hand crumpled noisily as he passed it over the back of the couch to her. He didn't know what to say. Did he wish one a good birth? A good day of birth? A happy celebration?

"For you." He uttered. He tried to sound well-natured, but it came out sounding terse and nervous.

Elle hesitated, looking up a Loki for a brief moment, as though ensuring that it wasn't a trick of some sort. She reached up, taking the packet from Loki's pale fingers and put it in her lap.

"Will you eat cake with us?" She pointed at the little box in the middle of the coffee table. It wasn't a large cake; barely bigger than a saucer. But Elle had been so sincere in her question that Loki couldn't do as he'd planned, and leave her to her brother to celebrate. He sat down beside David, elbows on his knees as Elle peered at the gift in her hands.

"Are you going to open it?" David prodded.

She smiled suddenly, tearing open the top. She slid the book out, looking confused when she opened it and found that there were no words inside.

"A diary?" Elle wondered. She wasn't complaining, but she was a little confused.

"Now when I tell you a story, you can write it down," Loki advised. "That way, if you can't remember something, you can go look in your book, and find the answer." Instead of constantly barraging him with questions, he added mentally.

Elle brightened instantly.

"Does this mean you're not mad anymore?"

Loki nodded with a grim smile. He hadn't been angry at her to begin with, merely impatient and tired. Still, he could understand why she must have thought it.

Elle dropped the stuffed animal and her book on the couch cushions and practically threw herself at Loki, wrapping her arms around his neck as she hugged him.

"I won't annoy you anymore, okay?"

"Somehow, I sincerely doubt that," Loki choked in reply.


	20. To Close

A week after Elle's birthday, Loki was surprised with his own small birthday cake and gift. She smiled cheerily up at him as he accepted the poorly wrapped gift. It felt like a book. He wasn't surprised at all to find that it _was_, indeed, a book.

"What is all this?"

"Your birthday!" Elle responded with a big smile. "You said you couldn't remember it."

David sat back in his seat, watching the goings on with smug satisfaction.

"And the book?"

"Everyone gets a present on their birthday. David's birthday is in April, so I'll get him a present in April. But your birthday is today, so I got you a present today!"

The logic was infallible, Loki thought with a certain amount of sarcasm.

"And what if my birthday were not today?"

"Huh?"

David snorted. "He's saying that you might be wrong about his birthday." He was getting way too much pleasure out of seeing Loki sit awkwardly as Elle put a colored-paper cone on his head. This was great, watching the serious, smug, sarcastic Loki get treated like a little kid.

"Nope!" Elle protested loudly as she balanced the home-made party had on Loki's black hair. "You said you didn't remember, so I picked, and I decided that it's today. So _Happy. Birthday_." She said the final two words with such ferocity that Loki couldn't argue. He complied with her insistence that he wear the idiotic looking hat. He complied with taking a look at his gift, a book of fairy-tales that he assumed he was to read to Elle. Then he complied with eating the too-rich chocolate cake that Elle had no doubt somehow managed to beg out of Gary, after blowing out a single candle to 'make a wish!' as Elle had insisted. He even went along with the moronic song that went with it.

A wish that would never be granted, he thought grimly. He wasn't allowed to leave this realm until Elle died; probably of old age. But there were no other wishes he could think of, so wishing for his freedom on the extinguished flame would have to do. Besides, anything else he wanted, for the most part, he could manage.

About halfway through a rental movie about dogs –one of which reminding him all too much of Thor in his neediness- Loki happened to notice something peculiar. There he was sitting with a half-eaten bowl of popcorn in his lap. The only light in the apartment came from the kitchen, dimly humming like some drunken beetle. Elle was curled up on her side of the couch, a throw over her shoulders as her eyes drooped. She had her head on her brothers' arm. David, who wasn't as interested in watching the movie as he was the insides of his eyelids, was starting to snore faintly.

The apartment was warm. Snow fell out onto the balcony, flurries that barely even stuck to the wood of the thing. City lights lit up the normally white stuff in a myriad of colors and blends, leaving it looking surreal and unnatural. Everything was comfortable. Everything was peaceful.

The scene was too familiar. Too close to home.

He was too comfortable with it all. The realization crept up his neck and trickled down his spine like poison. How could Loki, someone who had spent his lifetime battling, sneaking, tricking, prying and playing, be at ease in such a calm and oft times ridiculous environment? Only the week before he had been hunting for someone to take his aggression out on; what happened? Was he not still a warrior? A master of the arcane?

_Was he not still Loki Laufeyson_? The frost giant, the monster?

Of course he was! So why was he sitting in a tiny apartment with two children, watching a movie about travelling animals and eating corn that had been puffed up into salty, white, starchy goodness? The idea appalled him. Yet, Loki didn't move from his place on the couch. He sat there, even after the movie ended and the TV screen had turned blue.

In the dimness of the apartment, Loki thought about the things that he missed, and the things that he did not, and why he was even doing all of these silly things to begin with. The more he thought about it, the less it made sense, and the less it made sense, the more he wanted to think about it, until finally, David woke up and took his sister to bed. He encouraged Loki to do the same.

Loki lay down in his bed, and stared up at the ceiling in the dark. What was he doing? Why was he doing it? Who was he, and why did it matter?

In the confusion of his thoughts, he fell asleep, dreaming of bare feet padding against marble floors, shrieking and laughter, the trot of enormous horses as the guards went by, and the smell of his mother's clothes as she put him to bed.

For the first time since he had arrived on Midgard; Loki had no nightmares.


	21. Elixir

The surprise visit from Thor came seven months after Loki had first met David and his sister. He had knocked on the door in the middle of a thunderstorm and Loki didn't need to look through the keyhole to know it was his brother. The outrageous winds, thunder, lightning and rain had been more than enough to tell him that if anyone were to come visit in that miserable summer weather, it would be Thor.

"Brother!" The blonde thundered, embracing Loki tightly in thick arms.

Elle had been sitting at the table, writing studiously in the journal that Loki had given her for her birthday. Her handwriting was sloppy and changed sizes, but she worked hard at transcribing everything that her new tutor told her.

"Release me," Loki grumbled bitterly. He was grateful when his brother did, and he turned his back on the thicker Aesir.

"This lovely child must be Elle." Thor smiled. Elle cringed at his forwardness, and gave a shy smile in return. Something about it made Loki want to smack his brother with the hammer that he frequently swung around in battle. He thought better of the idea, and let his brother sit down across from Elle.

"May I see this?" Thor put a broad hand on Elle's journal. She held onto it for a moment, her fingers applying pressure so that the pages puckered beneath the tips. In the end, she released it, letting the blonde slide it around so that he could read it.

"Brother, you've been tutoring her." Elle half expected the statement to be a reprimand, but instead, she found him to be smiling under the scruff of his face.

"Of course," Loki replied, making a fresh cup of coffee. "They don't educate their children very well."

"But making her write it all in her own hand?"

"She remembers it better that way."

Elle was just confused.

"You have a brother?"

"Of course he does!" Thor happily bellowed. "No." Loki replied at the same time. He sent Thor an icy gaze as Elle made a face of further bewilderment.

"He's adopted," The blonde adapted his previous statement.

"We were raised together. Nothing more."

"You're my brother."

"And you're a fool."

"I'm going to my room." Elle stood up, and left the dining room, shutting her bedroom door behind her. Once she was out of earshot, Thor's smiled dimmed significantly.

"What do you want?" Loki demanded. He didn't sit down, opting to lean against the countertop, letting his lean figure lean back as he stirred milk into his coffee. "I have spent no time in Midgards' hospitals of late." And other than the barfight he'd participated in a few nights before, he hadn't been causing any trouble, either. Then again, the physical altercations had been happening once every couple of weeks or so since January… Thor _might_ have been there about that.

Loki didn't want to explain himself.

"I wanted to check on you, brother."

"Enough pleasantries." Loki insisted bitterly. "Just tell me what you came here for, and kindly depart." He was surprised at how emotional he felt about seeing the God-King again. Some parts of him were burning with rage, and other parts were weeping with frustration, joy and sadness. It was hard to tell just _what_ was going on in his head and heart. Loki wished he didn't care.

"I genuinely come to make sure you're well, Loki," Thor reaffirmed. "Several months have passed already, and I heard nothing from you."

"Imagine that."

"I like not your sarcasm."

"You've seen me. You've heard from me. I'm well."

"I like it less when you use it on me like so, brother." Thor looked down at the notebook that he'd taken from Elle. "You've been telling tales of Asgard." He flipped backwards through the book. "A number of them."

"Have you seen the tales the humans tell of us?" Loki wondered with a sigh. "She was getting no truth from any of those." He didn't move from his position at the counter. Glancing up at the clock, Loki took note of the time. David would be back before long from his date with the redhead from the homeless shelter. They'd have to leave for work.

He didn't want Thor there when the human got home. Too much explaining; too many questions… Too much he didn't want to delve into after several months of burying as much as possible.

"If you had wished some of your books…"

"I had _wished_ an end to this droll punishment." Loki grumbled. He didn't want to admit how useful some of his books would have been. The girl wouldn't have been able to read them in proper form; wrong language and all. They still would have been a decent addition to his own knowledge. Old as he was, wise as he might have considered himself, even Loki couldn't remember _everything_.

"Will you always remain so bitter?" Thor stood from his chair, leaving the book on the table. The gap between he and Loki closed almost instantly. He put his hands on Loki's shoulders, giving them a firm squeeze. How could he ever reassure his brother? Would he never be forgiven for the sin of their father? "Will you never release your vengeful…"

"Will_ you_ never cease?" Loki pulled away from Thor, rolling his shoulders to make the Aesir let go. He put his coffee down on the counter, stepping away from him. "Do not think, Thor, that for an instant I listen to your perfumed comments when I know you are the one who sent me here. That _you _are the one who has stripped me of my titles, my magic, my _right_! Do you think I wish to take heed in your wise words, oh Mighty King?"

His own shoulders dropping forward in a very unkingly show of his heart, Thor took a step back. Eventually, Loki would learn. Squaring himself, Thor strode towards the door. He set something on the table on his way by. A shining yellow apple, just a little smaller than Loki's fist, practically glowed against the dark surface.

The door shut with a soft thump as Loki picked it up to make sure that it was indeed what it appeared to be. It was.

Tears threatened to fall. No; he would not cry for his brother again. _No_. Thor was _not_ his brother. He had to stop thinking like that. Palm to the highest point of his nose, Loki tried to apply pressure to make the ignorant thoughts run away. It wasn't working.

The bedroom door opened. Elle peered out.

"Are you okay?" She spoke in a tiny voice.

"Come… Finish your writing." Loki looked down at the apple, rolling it between his fingers. Was this a trick? Did Idunn really give Thor an apple for him? And besides that, why had Thor brought it to Midgard? Elle was obeying him, getting back up to the table. The ugly scar from her burns wrinkled and marred her otherwise sweet self, standing out in relief against the smooth blue t-shirt she wore.

"Loki?" She pulled her book back in front of her. Elle waited until he acknowledged her to continue. "Is that man really a king?"

Loki frowned.

"You needn't think on it." Yes; it was one of Idunn's apples. Still sweet, still crisp, just as she would have brought them in the halls of the palace. He had been denied his greater magics, but Loki would not be denied his immortality. He was glad to have it, in a way. The thought of what would happen to him without the elixir fruit had crossed his mind more than once in the previous months.

Two days later, a box of books was delivered to the apartment.


	22. Hope For The Boy

Summer had arrived in May like a thunderstorm, sudden, crazy, catching everyone off guard. By the middle of September it had decided to leave like a spring breeze. The new month brought milder temperatures, rain and amber leaves, but little else. Loki was glad for the seasonal change. The heat had made him miserable and even _more_ grouchy than usual, so the cooler weather left him feeling refreshed and better than he had in a couple of months.

Elle was sitting in the office, doing homework. In the previous two weeks, she had become unusually silent, opting to let Loki be, instead of asking questions. Her normally happy, clingy, excitable disposition vanished once school had started. Perhaps it had been because she was in a new school. She finished her final semester at her old school by taking the public bus, but now that the new school year had begun, she was in a closer one.

Loki thought that it was because she was busy with her studies. Maybe she was just feeling shy. Elle was still young; it had to happen from time to time. Stacking another load of dishes into the washing machine, Loki pulled down the lever to let it run. He glanced over his shoulder at the girl. She was hunched over a paper with math problems on it.

At least she took her studies seriously, he thought. He was loathe to admit that he missed her curiosity. Telling her tales of the nine realms had become a ritual of sorts. It helped him to remind himself that this whole life he was living was just temporary. Eventually, he would go back. Eventually…

"It's hotter than th'devils asshole back here. Why's she wearing long sleeves?" Moaned one of the waitresses as she clocked out for a break.

David stopped what he was doing, standing up straighter than he had all evening. It was as though someone had snapped him in the back of the head with a whip. Loki watched as he focused on turning a couple of burgers over on the grill, then put his attention on the office door. He couldn't leave his post, though. For the time being, he'd have to hold the thought.

Later that evening, David asked Loki if he'd get Elle ready to leave. "I just need to make sure Beth knows we're gonna be short next week." Gary was taking a trip to another city, and as much as David didn't mind the extra shifts, it was going to be hard working around those _and_ taking care of his sister.

Loki wiped sweat from his brow, nodding his head tiredly. He washed his hands, and rinsed his face, drying quickly with the rough paper towels that had been provided by the establishment.

Elle was laying on the couch in the office, curled on her side, clutching her scarred arm with her free hand. She looked like she was having bad dreams. Loki hesitated to wake her. His gaze settled on the homework that she had looked as though she working studiously on earlier that evening. The math page was devoid of answers. Picking it up, he saw that the science paper about plant life was blank as well. The notebook for her writing assignment _What I Did On My Summer Vacation _was hardly started with the word "I" at the top. Tucking her papers into the cheap backpack that David had purchased her for just this purpose, Loki wondered at it.

It was all very much unlike her. What had she been doing all evening? No matter what it was David was going to be annoyed that she hadn't finished her homework. Even more so if he got a note from the teacher.

"Wake up." He touched her arm with just the tips of his fingers. She jolted awake, panting at the surprise. "Why did you not finish your assignments?"

"I don't feel good."

Loki could believe it. She had been acting sluggish for a few days. If it were ill sleep, he thought he might be able to help, but he waited for a continuation of the sentence. She didn't say anything else. Rather, Elle reached up towards him causing Loki to blanch. What did she want from him? He wasn't her brother. There was no way he was going to carry her out to the bus stop. No. No way.

"I'll get your brother." He hurried from the office.

David was arguing with Beth.

"Look, I have to watch out for Elle. What am I supposed to do, tell her to wait at home while I work an extra half shift? She's _eight_, Beth. I have enough trouble with social services; I sure as hell don't need them jumping down my throat for leaving her at home alone!"

"Well without Gary, it's just you, Frank, and Ethan to cover for the full day. And you know as well as I do that we need someone to float between second and third shift! It's a madhouse during dinner rush! You have a complaint; take it to my husband." The older woman folded her arms over her belly, throwing her shoulders back. "But you're the only one available for those three days. Everyone else has other engagements. Frank works a second job, Ethan's in school."

"And I have a kid to look after! Come on, Beth. Just help me out here." David begged. "If you could just hold out until four-thirty, so I can pick Elle up from the bus stop."

"Look, I can't, David." The woman didn't look like she pitied the boy one bit. "When you took the job, you said you were available _anytime_. If it changed, you should've told Tony before now."

"But _you're_ the one in charge of the schedules, and I told _you_ a month ago that Elle was going to a different school, so I'd need that extra half hour if you wanted me to work the float."

"And I told you I'd do my best."

"That's _bullshit, _Beth, and you know it!"

"Then I suggest you find another job," Beth retorted coolly. She glanced up at Loki, giving a vacant, ingenuine smile. "Something wrong, Laufeyson?"

"Nothing." Loki replied with an equally snake-like grin. "Your sister looks for you."

David turned around, knocking over a stack of serving trays in his fury as he slammed open the swinging door to the kitchen. Loki was surprised to find David capable of causing chaos on his way past. He had been angry before- furious- but as of yet, Loki hadn't witnessed the young man carrying on like he just had. When it came to the boss and his wife, David had always cowed. Maybe it was fear he would lose his only source of income, but Loki had seen it as a weakness. What was a man without his pride?

Beth and Tony had been leading David along for a while now and the boy knew it. They had gypped his paychecks, took turns in shorting and overloading his hours, and gripped about how he kept the kitchen, even though they knew that he worked his best. David had confided in Loki that he had the impression that they were trying to get him to quit because of an altercation he'd had with Tony's son when he'd come into the kitchen and started handing out orders like he owned the place.

Nothing had gotten physical, but David had stood up for himself; something nobody had seemed to expect. But as of yet, the owners had found no real reason to release him from his job, despite the confrontation. They were just trying to push his buttons. Based on what he had just seen, it was clear to Loki that they were succeeding and David was finally willing to push back.

Maybe there was hope for the boy yet.

Loki followed David and Elle out the back door of the restaurant. The skies were clear and warm with a gentle breeze that made it comfortable enough to walk to the bus stop with just t-shirts on.

"Will you accept the extra work?"

David shifted Elle onto his back, bouncing her a little bit as he made sure he had a hold of her knees.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, yet." He answered truthfully. "I can't just walk out. If Social Services finds out I haven't got a job, it turns into fight. But staying…" He sighed. "I don't know." He accented the words with another shift of his sisters' weight.

"Then you will search for new employment?"

"Probably. But, uh, in the meantime…"

"In the meantime?"

"Could you watch Elle for a couple of shifts?"

Loki was shocked to find that he wasn't bothered by the request.


	23. Ugly READER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED

_**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER MAY BE TRIGGERING OR UPSETTING TO SOME READERS. DISCRETION IS VERY STRONGLY ADVISED.**_

Elle asked if she could stay home from school the next morning. David put a thermometer in her mouth and felt her cheeks with the back of his hand as he waited for the little thing to beep at him.

"You're not warm." He took the device from her mouth, checking the reading.

"I don't feel good."

David shook his head, running his hand through Elle's hair with a little smile.

"You know the rule, Elle. No fever, you go to school."

"But David," the girl whined. "I don't feel good."

Loki lay in his bed, listening to the exchange. He stared up at the ceiling, the harsh white spackle a far different greeting than the smooth gold engraved ceiling of the chambers he had grown up in. He shut his eyes, trying to remember what the patterns had looked like.

The sounds of traffic outside the open bedroom window invaded his senses. Frowning, he rolled over, folding the pillow over his ear. It wasn't keeping the conversation out. Opening one eye, Loki glared at the door and made a gesture with his hand, casting a small spell to just nullify the noise outside of the room.

That was better. At least now he could sleep.

The phone was ringing. Why, Idunn _why, _hadn't he unplugged it? Loki wanted sleep dammit. _Sleep._ Rolling out of the bed, Loki glared at the offending machine that sat at the foot of David's unmade bed. He picked it up, barking a greeting into the receiver.

The woman on the other end sounded like she'd peed herself.

"M.. Is thi- Is this David Young?"

"No, it's not. He's gone to… pound pavement, I believe."

"Oh…" the woman hesitated. "Would this be mister, uh.. La-ow-f.."

"Laufeyson." Loki interrupted the incompetent woman. "Yes. What need you, woman?"

She seemed to gather her wits after a moment.

"Oh! It's Danielle. We need someone to come and pick her up; she got sick during first period and is still complaining about her stomach."

David had made the girl go to school. She had been complaining about not feeling well and he had sent her anyway. So of course she'd gotten sick on Loki's day off. He wasn't pleased. Not pleased at all. He had wanted sleep. Rest. _Silence_!

"I do not wish…" He sighed and dragged his hand over his face. "Yes. I will come retrieve her." David was going to pay. _Dearly_.

Elle was laying on what appeared to be a table with a mattress on top. Despite the warm weather outside, she was wearing a baggy sweater. She didn't look up when Loki pushed aside the curtain that kept her barricaded from everything else. Loki couldn't help but notice that she didn't look sick, either.

"Your tutor has advised me that you are unwell," He folded his arms. "Yet it would appear you're fine."

Elle didn't look at him.

"Come. We will go home." It happened to be that Loki knew what it was like to need time away from instruction from time to time. He had been so quick to pick up on magic as a child that classes frequently bored him. He had played ill more than once in order to get away from the dull droning of instructors that didn't wish to teach him anything beyond the primary arcane.

Then, once Frigga had tucked him into his bed, smoothing his black hair back and kissing his cheek, he would summon servants to bring him books from the palace library and study on his own. That was how he had learned to make his shadows. Practice in the silence of his room, between checks from his mother and the nannies, had allowed Loki time to explore the deeper reaches of his natural talents.

While Elle may not have been magically talented- as it seemed most Midgards were not- she might have just needed time away from the institution. Maybe she needed to find some time to work on her own talents… Whatever they might have been. Loki grimaced. The only talent the girl had that he had seen thus far was irritating the life out of him with endless questions. Was there something that he didn't know about?

Elle said nothing on the bus ride home. She only paused in the kitchen of the apartment long enough to ask if she could have a soda, to which Loki obliged. She took two sips from the can and retreated to her room.

Loki sank into the couch in the living room, brows furrowed in confusion and consideration. Was it possible that the girl truly didn't feel well? He had the feeling that the complaint had been a falsity. Laying his head back on the cushions, he drew a deep breath.

Elle's bedroom door opened with a tiny squeak, waking Loki from the nap he hadn't realized he'd been taking. She tiptoed towards the bathroom.

"Stop." Loki commanded without opening his eyes. "Come here."

Elle dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and locking it noisily. Now she was just acting suspicious and Loki didn't like that one bit. Getting up from the couch, he stepped in front of the bathroom door.

The tap was running. There was copious sniffling and moaning going on. Well, she wasn't using the toilet. Waiting until she finished, he said nothing.

Ten minutes, and Elle didn't come out of the bathroom. Fifteen. Half an hour. David didn't just owe him for his lack of sleep, Loki thought. He owed him bigger because now he had to deal with the drama of an eight year old little girl. Odin himself would have to step out of Asgard to save David when he got home.

The lock slid open.

"That'll be enough of that." Loki stopped Elle from shutting the door when she saw him. "You come out here and speak with me. I know not what makes you act so queer, but you'll cease as of now." Her face was pink. Her eyes were just rimmed in red. The girl had been crying. Drawing back, the man stared. She was standing with her scarred arm away from him, wrapped in a wet towel. There were scissors on the floor.

He didn't like the implications.

Drawing up to his full height, Loki looked down at the girl with what he was sure to be his most intimidating look.

"You come out and let me look at you." He got a smidgeon of satisfaction seeing her cower for a second. Then he felt slimy for causing it. No. It was for her own good. He steeled his stupid emotions and pointed to the floor in front of him. "Come. Out."

As though compelled by gravity, Elle did as she was told, holding the towel in place.

Loki knelt before her, reaching out. She flinched, but he wouldn't let her move. Taking hold of her other arm, the dark haired man stripped her scarred arm of the towel, and stared in horrified enamor at the blood that dribbled down peeled, gashed flesh.

"_What did you do_?"

"I-I…" Elle couldn't get out a response. It wasn't for lack of trying. She wanted to explain everything, and Loki could see it clearly on her face. Tears began to fall uncontrollably.

Fury overwhelmed Loki so suddenly that he nearly screamed at the poor girl. His grip tightened, but he forced it to release.

"Answer me."

"I-I'm ugly…" She whispered. The words made her body jerk with even more tears. She clutched herself.

Blood hit the carpet. She was young. For an Aesir she was barely out of infanthood, and for one of Midgard; still a child. But Elle was hurting in mature, horrible ways for something that hadn't even been her fault to begin with. She had _literally_ tried to cut away the ugliness of her arm. She hadn't managed much. It appeared that she had tried the place where the deepest burn had been, first… Probably because she had nerve damage that kept her from feeling as much pain. But once she had been done there, she had tried a couple of places and failed- most likely _because of_ the pain.

"Idiot." Loki stared. A lump in his throat formed heavily. What was he supposed to say? He wished he had some healing stones from Asgard. Even with the little magic he had, he couldn't repair the damage that she had attempted. Was it deep? He knelt, taking a closer look. No. She had been too afraid to do anything deeper than shaving off enough to make it bleed.

Fear was good. It meant that she probably wouldn't try it again. But it wasn't deep enough to need to go to the hospital if they were lucky, he thought. There was a clinic down the block that might be able to salve and bandage the self-inflicted wound. He didn't think that there was any reason to panic over the wound itself…

But the mindset troubled him deeply. She had never expressed discomfort with the appearance of her arm before the beginning of the school year. Had she been bullied? Were people confronting her about it? Surely children would have been understanding of something that couldn't be helped. Surely?

"Come…" Loki stood. "We will get it tended to."


	24. Confidence

David shut the bedroom door. Sitting down with Loki on the couch, he put his face in his hands.

"I knew this was going to happen," He muttered. "And damned if I didn't know something was up. I did. I knew it when she started insisting on wearing long sleeves even though it was still hot out. But I thought she'd come to me and say something. I didn't… Didn't expect _that_." He looked like he was going to cry.

"It makes sense," Loki confessed bitterly. "They are not the children she knew before. They would be unable to comprehend. But why they would go so far…"

"It's not just the kids her age," David corrected Loki. "From what she told me, it's some of the older kids on the bus that were bothering her the worst. Middle schoolers, probably."

Loki didn't know what _Middle Schoolers _were, but he knew that he didn't approve of older, bigger children picking on younger, smaller ones.

"Couple of the boys were calling her names." David continued. He sounded so helpless. "She wouldn't even tell me what they were saying…" And sadly, he could just imagine. The scars weren't pretty. They were masses of uneven, discolored skin, wrinkled in some places, smooth like plastic in others. The biggest one felt like leather.

Had he been her age, David hated to admit that he probably would have joined in on the teasing. He wouldn't have understood it, or realized that it was perfectly normal for what had happened. At that age, children only knew that those scars were different, and different was _bad_. It was _scary_. To those children, Elle might have even looked kind of like a monster.

"Boys?" Loki echoed faintly. Obviously, children of Midgard were not only uneducated, but uncouth as well. Boys were to grow into men, and men were meant to treat women just as well as the women treated them. Elle could be frustrating at time, but he found it hard to imagine anything she could have done to have warranted such harsh teasing that she would have hurt herself. Had he the full extent of his powers, there would have been ways to find out. He could have shifted his shape, cast a greater illusion and accompanied Elle to school without her ever—Wait. What in the name of _Yggdrasil_ was he thinking?

He was thinking about protecting his possessions was what he was thinking. Yes; that was acceptable. What kind of ruler of this miserable realm would he have been if he didn't take good care of those things that belonged to him? David was talking beside him, but Loki wasn't listening anymore. He was annoyed. He was actually _angry_.

Somehow, he was managing to be angry at the children who had made fun of Elle, and at Elle for listening, all at the same time. How could she be stolid enough to believe those fools who dared make derogatory comments about her arm? It wasn't true. Sure, the child wasn't the picture of beauty ideal, but she was far from monstrous, or ugly. Plain, perhaps, but she was still young. No matter how she looked, though, there was never a reason for the girl to feel she had to scrape away her scars in order to be acceptable.

"Loki?" David had stopped talking. "Dude, you look like you're about to bust a vein."

Wasn't David as infuriated as he was? A quick glance at the boys' face told Loki that he was. But it appeared that David was keeping all of his thoughts to himself. Whether or not this was an admirable trait was hard to tell. Sometimes keeping everything inside made one more cunning. Sometimes it made one stupid.

Loki could attest to both, if he had wanted to think hard on the subject; Which he certainly did not.

"Why would she listen to them?" He demanded.

David gave an expression that showed he was wondering the same thing.

"Kids are cruel, Loki." He wiped at his face again, as though an imaginary sweat had broken out on his brow. "Danielle doesn't look like them anymore. Before the fire, she would have been just another face in the class. Now she's the girl with the scar on her arm. And it's not just a little scar, like some cat scratch that didn't heal. It's huge. You can't miss it."

David didn't need to tell Loki; he knew.

"I'm really worried about her." Rightfully so. "More worried about how it's going to be when she hits highschool."

Middle school, High school..? Loki didn't even care anymore. He just wanted to hurt something. He was itching for a fight. He wasn't going to get one out of a bunch of mortal children, though. Maybe that evening he'd go out to the bar. He'd find a nice rowdy one and piss off some big men and have a nice let down.

That sounded really good, actually.

"You think this will worsen as she grows older?"

David clearly hesitated, and it was all the answer that the trickster god needed.

"It depends," the young man put his lips against his knuckles in thought.

"On what?"

"How Elle approaches it, I guess." The mid-afternoon sun came in through the balcony door. Shadows became long against the living room floor. The glass was streaked and needed a good cleaning, but Loki wasn't focused on that; he was thinking about David's words.

"Elaborate."

"Mmph. Well… If she grows up and she's unashamed, I imagine most kids'll just ask her about them, rather than trying to start rumors, or alienating her. If she stays sensitive about 'em, people are gonna talk. That's the way of things."

It made sense. People didn't want to bother people who seemed to have confidence; that just wasn't the way the pecking order worked. He had been picked on a little bit when he had been younger, because his skills had not laid in strength, but in skill. Once he had realized that his skill outweighed a lot of the ones who teased (Though not bullied, those who learned with him had been older and only teased out of good will, rather than ill)Loki gained a measure of confidence that put them to shame.

But he could also back that daring with his hard-earned work.

What had Elle to give her confidence? Very little, so far as Loki could tell. How would she earn it? _Would _she earn it? How old were the people of this realm before they knew what they were talented in? David appeared to be a decent cook, perhaps that was his talent. He was no gourmand, but he was good enough. Would Elle also pursue a lackluster career in a kitchen somewhere? He hoped not. She had to have been made of better stuff.

The longing for a good battle was wearing thin. Now he just wanted to confront the guilty parties that had caused Elle to hurt herself. He couldn't fight a bunch of Midgard's children, but he could certainly give them all a good scare they wouldn't forget. _That_ would nip the teasing in the bud.

Or it might make it worse, he admitted reluctantly.

"Then what shall we do?"

"I already talked to her," David took a drink of the leftover cola that Elle had started earlier. "We're just gonna have to keep an eye on her for a bit. The doctor might have bought that she skinned herself accidentally this time, but next time you can bet Child Services will be involved."

We? How dare that boy assume Loki was just a part of this?

Except he was.

How irritating. He, Loki, god of _mischief_ and _chaos_ actually gave a damn if the little girl was happy or not. Heaving a deep sigh, he pursed his lips together. Well, she was his. She was loyal to him, and all kings should return the loyalty of their subjects with protection, was that not true? Of course it was.

Of course it was.


	25. A Glass Of Water

Elle was having a nightmare. The scar had spread. Up her shoulders, over her back, down her belly, up her neck, masking her face. The hair on her head fell out in masses, and her skull became a withered cap of leathery, malcolored skin.

_Monster_, people whispered. _Freak. Creep. _

Sitting up in bed, heart pounding in her head, Elle felt sick. The skies outside were dimly lit with the lights of the city behind the curtain. She got out of bed, bare feet touching the carpet. She wiggled her toes against the rough, almost industrial stuff, and stood properly.

The bandages on her arm pulled at her skin. She looked down, grimacing at what she'd done.

Padding out into the main area of the apartment, Elle could hear David snoring in the room he shared with Loki. Stomach growling, she padded into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There wasn't much. Most of the time, they ate dinner at work, although it seemed as though Tony was soon going to put an end to that. She wasn't hungry anyway. Shutting the door, standing in the darkness, she decided to get a drink of water, instead.

Elle grabbed the step-stool that David had put beside the fridge so that she could get into the cabinets if needed. Turning on the tap, she let the cool water run over her finger before filling a plastic cup.

"It's late." Loki's voice startled Elle enough to make her drop the cup into the sink. The water from the tap sprayed up from the lip of the cup, getting Elle's nightgown wet.

"I was thirsty." She reached out to turn off the water, but Loki got to the tap before she did. He righted her cup, and turned off the tap once there was a little water in it, but left the plastic thing in the sink for Elle to retrieve on her own.

"Your brother spoke to me of ill-words that were uttered to you."

Elle picked up the cup in the sink, staring down into the shadowed water.

"I don't understand," She admitted.

"Someone spoke ill to you."

Oh. Well, that made sense, Elle supposed.

"Some… boys." She took a drink, then put the cup in the sink again. "They called me names." Her voice lowered. "Mean names."

"Come. We'll talk." Loki gestured for Elle to follow him. When she hesitated, he turned to peer at her in the dark. She was holding her scarred arm. "I know not what these children said to you, but I assure you that I will not repeat it."

Elle stepped down off the stool and followed Loki into the living room. She sat on the floor at the coffee table, good arm on the top, the other at her side. Normally, she would have sat beside him. It had surprised Loki a great deal the day he had realized that she saw him as her hero, and wanted to be close to him. Nobody had ever considered him anything more than a monster, or less than a threat. Hadn't that been why he had been stripped of his power?

Now that she sat away from him, Loki found himself surprised that he missed her proximity. He examined the feeling for a moment, before shaking himself from the thought and focusing on the girl.

"You will tell me what they said."

Elle licked her bottom lip, rolling it into her mouth and between her teeth. At Loki's strangely patient gaze, she stopped and shifted, turning her face away from him in the dimness of the living room.

"On the first day of school, one of the big kids on the bus asked me what was wrong with my arm," She started. She put her hand on her forearm to show how much of her scar had been showing. "When I told her I was in a fire, she asked me if I was scarred everywhere, and I told her no; just my arm."

She had taken off her sweater and shown the entire scar, from what Loki could tell. The girl had been 'grossed out' by what she had seen and had moved to another seat on the bus. The other kids on the bus had been curious, but the reaction from the first girl had left Elle feeling aware of how she must have appeared.

They had resorted to calling her names after she refused to show her arm to a group of older boys on the bus, who had been very lewd in their questions about her scarring. Was it on her chest? Was it all over? Was she hiding all of it? Well, if she wanted to prove she wasn't…

That was enough for Loki. He gripped the edge of the couch, fingers curling tightly into the corduroy-like material. The need to start something boiled in his beck. It turned to ice again when Elle looked up at him, brown eyes appearing black in the light from the balcony door.

"What did you tell the boys?" he demanded.

"No." Elle returned with a level of fear in her voice. "I told them they weren't allowed. Then I told them to leave me alone."

"They did not."

Elle shook her head in confirmation.

Loki hummed an annoyed response. He released the couch.

"The next time one of them approaches you…"

"They said I looked like a mummy." Elle interrupted him. "And then one of them called me a lake monster." Her voice sounded nasally. "And then they started chanting about how ugly I am." Tears rolled down her face. Loki wondered if she knew that the more she said, the more he had to wonder at his confusing emotions regarding her pain. Probably not. Wait.

_How ugly I __**am**__._

Loki was sharp. He could pick apart people's ambitions by the way they walked, the way they talked, and the words they used. Elle might have had no ambitions, but he knew by her words that she completely believed what the boys had said. Had she not, she would have said _was_ not _am_.

That was all took for Loki to decide that he was going to take care of this issue. Nobody spoke to his subjects like that and got away with it for long. It didn't matter if they were little boys or grown men.

Elle would not try and hurt herself again, but neither did she stop wearing long sleeves.


	26. Magic And Breakfast

December came prowling like a beast, sneaking up on the unsuspecting city with thundering paws of chill and cold, and Loki had been glad for it. The first cold snap hit the city overnight, turning things into frost and ice. Loki felt invigorated by it. He toyed with his magic in early hours one morning on the balcony. Frost bled from his fingertips, along the railing. The wood crackled in the cold as the icy stuff grew, spreading further, until the entire balcony was covered with a thin layer of iridescence.

Looking down, he saw the blue of his Jotun heritage in his fingers and wrists. No doubt, if he continued, it would do as the frost had done, and spread further. He lifted them, looking at the digits in curiosity. Seldom did he ever see it, and when he did, the strange ripples of the alien, entirely too familiar flesh enamored him.

Once his flesh had returned to its enchanted, pink shade, Loki turned to face the sliding glass door, which had also frosted… Except for the little wipe-mark where Elle stared at Loki with saucered eyes.

"How did you do that?" She whispered when he stepped inside. She took a step back. Was she frightened? She _should_ have been. No, she shouldn't have been.

"You were dreaming." He replied, rubbing frost from his fingers and palms. Did he have enough magic to make her sleep? Maybe. Probably. He could try it. Why was he doubting it? Sleep was a simple thing to conjure.

Did it matter if she had seen what he had done? Yes. No. _Yes_. _**No**__._ It didn't matter. Who was she, more than a little child? Lacking in confidence and appearance, waxing heavily in curiosity and hero worship; Elle was nothing.

If she saw him as a monster… No; not _if_. She _did_. Elle was afraid. She had backed away when he came in. It made his chest physically tight.

Yes. _It mattered_, though why he wasn't so sure of. He reached out to Elle, touching the warmth of her temple with cold fingers, sending a ripple of magic through her skull. Her eyes rolled back, and Loki caught her by the shoulders before she hit the floor.

"You _are_ dreaming." Loki whispered, correcting himself. Early morning light left shadows on the girls face. She slept peacefully as he took a moment to adjust her frame in his arms. She was all knees and elbows and limbs, which make maneuvering her back into her room a little more of a task than Loki would have preferred so early in the morning.

Laying her in her bed, Loki pulled the blankets up to her chin and turned away.

David woke a half hour after. He got dressed for his new job, sliding his feet into a pair of steel toed boots. Loki didn't know what the title of his room mates' new job was, but he knew that that first week he'd been doing it, he'd come home sore, tired and grouchy. After the first week, David seemed to adjust to his earlier hours and more physically demanding labor. A month and a half in, it had appeared that the young man had lost a few inches in his middle, and gained one in his shoulders.

Loki remained at the diner.

"Second shift's looking for loaders," David advised him that morning. "If you're interested, I can talk to my boss."

"Manual labor?" Loki nearly scoffed. Then he thought about what he was doing. Was washing dishes any better than something that involved true physical effort? "I will… consider it." He would take the job, he decided, but there was no reason to sound desperate. He _wasn't_ desperate. Loki didn't care if he washed dishes at that miserable little restaurant for the rest of his sentence. Except… Gary had been ill and was struggling to keep up on the grill, which left the owner and his wife frustrated that they were going to need to hire new help… Especially after the last 'New Help' had turned out to be about as useful as tits on a bull.

David left the room, boots treading heavily on the carpet as he went to wake his younger sister.

Loki held his breath for a moment, eyes on the girls' bedroom door as he waited for David came out to tell him that his sister had seen the display on the balcony that morning. Instead, the young man came out, smiled at Loki, wished him a good day and headed off to work. How could he have doubted his own magic for a moment?

Or maybe he had been hoping that Elle remembered.

Elle came from the bedroom minutes later, dressed for school, backpack in hand. She yawned heavily.

"Mornin' Loki." Her words were slurred by sleepiness. She didn't appear to have any recollection of the encounter beforehand. That was good. Yes; wasn't it? So why did he suddenly want to sit her down and explain everything?

Not. Happening.

"You've exams this week," He commented. "Eat breakfast before you leave."

"David said so, too." Elle put her backpack on the table, and sat down. She yawned a second time. "But I'm still tired."

No doubt, Loki thought. The magic that had put her to sleep had been meant for an hour or more; he hadn't thought about checking the time when he'd done it. Couldn't say as it was the first thing he'd thought of when he saw that she'd seen. It needed to have been done, Loki justified. She was a little girl who _actually_ looked up to him. He couldn't let her think he was some sort of monster.

Getting up, Loki passed the girl a bowl of cereal and a spoon. Normally, he would have made her get it on her own. Was this guilt? Hah, guilt for what? For making sure she didn't blow his cover? _Did he even have a cover_? No. This was most certainly, most absolutely _not_ guilt of any nature.

Though it might have been nice to show off for a change.

"You okay?" Elle swallowed a spoonful of breakfast. She rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I am," Loki confirmed over his own bowl of cereal. The stuff tasted like sugared cardboard. It would suffice for the time being, though.

"You look tired."

He wasn't. Loki was just irritated with the overload of thoughts and feelings going on of recent. Ever since he'd found the need to punish those rude little whelps for hurting Elle in September, he had been unable to decipher all the things going on in his mind.

They had deserved it entirely, of course. Loki caught up with two of the three at the bus stop one afternoon when they'd been dropped off. And then he'd scared the shit out of them. It had all been good fun to him, of course, but they were nothing for opponents. When it came to making a little girl feel awful about herself, they were big men, but when it came to someone bigger and more powerful than they… Well. Loki found them all severely lacking.

The third one he'd met at the bus stop as well, but not for another few days afterward. He wanted to give the two little minions the chance to warn him. A whispered word from Elle to David told him that the scare tactic had not worked.

He fixed that problem post-haste… Which reminded him.

"Have those ill-meaning brats on your bus been bothering you?" Coffee. He needed coffee.

Elle shook her head no. She tucked dark hair behind her ear, and continued eating.

"Have _any_ of the children been a bother to you?" He poured instant coffee crystals into a mug of water, stirred, and placed it in the microwave. Loki couldn't hear Elle chewing anymore. Looking in the reflection of the microwave door, he could see that she had paused, looking uneasy at the query.

"They don't understand," Elle spoke carefully. "David said that they're just scared and to be patient. So… Sometimes they say mean things, but…" She tapped her spoon against the table. "They only say them because they don't understand."

She would be nine in a month, give or take a few days, and Elle spoke with the wisdom of an adult. It was secondhand through her brother, a man that Loki genuinely thought dull-witted most days, but it was still wise.

And _irritating_. He wanted to know if looks were so important, but even the trickster knew that they were. He could have cast a glamor on the girl, but it wouldn't have made the scar go away. It would have still been there. And besides, he had put her to sleep, just a bit before to _prevent_ her from seeing his magic. What kind of idiocy was he thinking?

"Will you tell me a story?" Elle's voice dropped, changing the subject as she scooped up more cereal. "I want to hear more about Asgard."

"If you pass your exams. What have you today?"

"Spelling." Elle replied between mouthfuls. "And math."

"You pass both, and I will allow two stories."

"I need a new notebook." Elle added.

"Then ask your brother for one, I haven't any." The coffee was too hot. He blew on it in annoyance after burning his tongue.

Elle smiled, despite Loki's coarseness. She put her bowl in the sink, standing on her stood to rinse it.

And then she gave Loki a hug. It took all of his willpower not to throw her off, and snarl at the brat in annoyance. Don't touch him! He was not to be touched! What did she think he; another lowly, ignorant mortal like…

Of course she did.

He'd made sure of it.


	27. Assumption

In February, Loki saw Thor again. There had been thunder in the middle of a flurry of snow and hail, and he'd known that the fair-haired Odinson was on his way. Grateful for Elle being in school, and David being at work, he waited in the apartment full of boxes for his brother.

"Brother." Thor did not come in with his usual rumble of cheerful ferocity. He stepped inside the apartment, taking a look around. "What is all this?"

"The children are moving into their own apartment. The boy is attempting to court, and living with someone else is… Apparently unacceptable."

Thor didn't miss the note of disapproval in Loki's voice.

"You are disappointed, brother."

"I am grateful for the serenity of a quite apartment," Loki lied.

"And you are disappointed."

Silence spoke far more than Loki's silver tongue might have.

"I did not expect you to become attached to them." Thor smiled thinly. He knew his brother would deny any attachments he had to the mortal siblings, but there was no denying the way the thinner man held his temple against his palm as he turned his cup of coffee around on the table. In a way, Thor had _hoped_ that Loki would want to be around the humans. He had hoped for the two of them to soften his brothers heart.

Sighing heavily, Loki looked up at his brother without lifting his head.

"What do you want, Thor? Not unlike you to gloat in your youth, but as King of Asgard…" he clicked his tongue in teasing disapproval. "I do not believe your father would approve."

"_Our_ father."

"See how I argue not?" Loki replied. It wasn't that he agreed with Thor; he most certainly did _not_. But he wasn't in the mood to play cat and mouse. He wanted to know why his brother was here, and for the Aesir to leave.

Thor put an apple on the table in front of Loki. Another of Idunn's.

Loki lifted his head from his palm, looking down at the offered fruit. For a moment, he considered throwing it in his brothers' face. After having spent an entire year in this wholly forsaken realm, he honestly just wanted all the reminders of the place he'd grown up to vanish from him.

"You've been on this realm for a full turn," Thor spoke steadily as he leaned back in the chair he sat in. "Have you learned anything?"

"Humans are cruel and dull-witted, and they enjoy being that way." Loki spoke with fiery meaning, intending on getting a rise from his brother. His green eyes showed a mixture of unspoken emotions and aggravation. He was still Loki; he was still as he had ever been- Observant, Chaotic, Proud.

Thor looked unimpressed.

"Yet, you like the girl and her brother."

"She is one of the few humans I tolerate," Loki confessed reluctantly. "And Elle, at least, is clever enough to entertain me from time to time. Her brother, though… He is good as little more than a mule. He slaves in labor every day for the pay of barely enough coin to even pay his portion of our board… Yet he insists on moving into another place. He's a fool- and over a female, no less."

Thor took note of the use of the girls' name. To him, this meant that Loki had not only grown accustomed to whatever habits the child had, and was going to sorely miss her once she was in the new apartment with her brother, but that on some level –no matter how small—he actually had some kind of affection for her.

Obviously, the affection was not shared with the boy. Loki obviously tolerated him, and on some level, he must have respected him, or else he would have long since cut his throat.

"And now that they leave; what shall you do?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "What _would_ I do?" he asked drolly. "I will continue to work in this laborious job, and await the end of this miserable punishment."

"And the girl?"

Loki scoffed noisily. "What of her? She will live with her brother, as she should, and continue her lessons, _as she should_, and I will not interfere, _as it should be_." The apple sat between them, golden and radiant and looking altogether like it didn't belong in the little urban apartment. The scent of its ripeness permeated the air almost as heavily as the unspoken words between Thor and his brother.

"You will still see her," Thor assured.

"You assume much, Thor." Loki tapped his fingers on the table impatiently.

"I can see that you assume you will not be welcome to," Thor might have been thick from time to time, but he wasn't blind and, despite Loki's frequent thoughts otherwise, he wasn't entirely stupid either. "But I believe you will be surprised to find otherwise."

"Go home, Thor." Loki uttered. The mere sight of the bigger man was nauseating him. Or maybe it was the smell of Asgards palace halls that came from him. Or the smell of Idunn's apple. Or the sight of understanding in Thor's eyes.

Or maybe it was that he just hadn't wanted to hear the truth. Loki was a renowned liar and trickster, and not without reason. After all; had he not been raised in deceit? It only came naturally to him. Yet his heart ached as he watched Thor stand to leave. He looked away, listening to the apartment door shut noisily. The heavy footsteps of his brother did not thump down the hall. They held in silence for almost three minutes before going away.

Loki looked down at the apple. He ate it, feeling the magic of immortality replenish his weary body and tired soul. Once it was gone, he admired the strength that had returned to his body, and the absence of the aches from working the strenuous job at the dockyard. Flexing his fingers, he took note of the sensation of magic that ran through them.

He wondered if it was slowly returning to its full strength. Tempted to test it, he almost tried- but the memory of Elle spotting him in December rose to the top of his mind, and the desire vanished. She wasn't even in the apartment, but she would be home from school before long. The risk…

He didn't know if he would be able to put her to sleep a second time. Not from lack of skill, but from lack of will.

Loki hated Midgard.


	28. A Wedding Gift

_**I apologise for the lack of update yesterday. The Author has not been feeling well, but back on track this evening!**  
_

_Come over for dinner_, David had said. _We'll get take out and watch movies or something_.

David had failed to mention that his female companion was going to be there.

Loki sank into the futon that served as a couch in the tiny apartment. The metal frame creaked and dug into his back through the thin mattress. The new place was smaller than the old one had been, even though he and the irritating boy had been sharing a room. With two bedrooms, and a kitchen that was barely large enough to turn around in, Loki wondered how Elle was adjusting to it.

She was sitting on the floor in front of him, nose in a book with a cup of hot chocolate nestled in the crook of her knee. Loki watched as Elle ran her finger along one of the longer words in the story.

She had greeted him the instant he'd shown up to the door, hugging him around the waist, head against his stomach as she proclaimed how much she'd missed him and how happy she was to see him. It made him uncomfortable, how she was so determined to get so close to him, but he had patted her on the head a couple of times and she'd let go pretty quickly, _thank goodness._

Leaning forward, ignoring the bar of the futon that dug hard into the backs of his knees, Loki read over Elle's shoulder. She was reading stories about Norse Gods; himself included. The idea made his stomach turn. How could she possibly believe that drivel? It wasn't entirely lies, but it was so inaccurate! Where were her notebooks of the stories he'd told her?

"These are different from the stories you told me," Elle looked up from her book. "But look. Your mom named you after a god. That's really cool, right?" She pointed to his name. Above it was a picture of a dark haired man in ancient clothing. Sadly, that part wasn't entirely inaccurate. He, his brother, and the warriors had all adopted the clothing of local mortals when they'd come down, each time.

Sometimes he wore crow feathers, sometimes he wore fox furs, and sometimes he had been expected to stand in the nude. Loki was only grateful that Elle had found one of the few images that he had been oddly alright with.

Funny how such a pathetic drawing of him could bring back such intense memories. There had been quite a few beautiful women back in that era. They'd all known their places. They waited on he and Thor hand a foot, some of them even getting enough brass in them to dare a wink or flirtatious utterance. Many a fair maiden had fallen to Loki's whims, and those of earth during that era had been some of his favorite. They had been lovely and small and… _creative_. The memory of bittersweet mead, beautiful women and thrilling battle left him as Elle turned around a second time.

"David's gonna marry her." She lowered her voice. "He proposed to her last week."

As much as Elle had seemingly liked Rachel, Loki was surprised to see she appeared disappointed. He stole a glance back at David and the red-haired woman as they snuck into the kitchen for drinks. From the sounds of it, they were sneaking more than just that.

"Are you not pleased for your brother?"

"Sure, I guess." Elle looked down at her book. "Rachel really loves him." She turned the pages of the book with her finger, not bothering to read anything as she flipped through half the book before shutting it entirely.

"You would seem otherwise…"

"They'll probably have babies, right?" Elle wondered.

Now it made sense; the girl was jealous. Her brothers' attention would be entirely placed on his new wife, and she worried that it would become like one of the fairy tales that had been in the book she gave him. Loki felt it a stupid worry and might have voiced as much if David hadn't come out of the kitchen at that exact moment.

"So, um," David rubbed his neck with a nervous expression. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor… and um. Watch Elle for a week this summer."

His eye actually twitched. Loki thought he was going to jump up and strangle the man. A week? An afternoon he could manage. A couple of hours… Maybe even overnight, since he'd done that before as well… but a _week_?

"It's just that… Well… Elle really likes you and… Rach and I are gonna be on our honeymoon."

Why had it been Elle that had told him that the two were getting married? Loki glared.

"Elle advised me of your arrangement with the woman."

"Her name is Rachel."

"Indeed," Loki caught Rachel's blushing face peeking around the corner of the wall that separated the kitchen and the living room. It irked him. He didn't have an issue with David marrying the girl who had helped run the homeless shelter, not even the fact that it had appeared they had been 'playing around' in the kitchen while Elle sat in the living room with him. (Poor manners, if he had to admit!)

But it bothered him endlessly that the two were leaving for a week, leaving Elle behind.

_With him._

Except it wasn't the _With Him _part that was bothering him. Maybe he was annoyed because Elle was being selfish about her brother's affections. That was, at least, a legitimate excuse to feel irritated. No, wait. Yes. Oh Hel, he was confused again.

"So?" Rachel was on David's arm. She wrapped her slender fingers around his shoulder, and smiled at Loki.

"Please, Loki? It would mean so much to us."

He looked down at Elle. She wasn't looking up at him. She was playing with the dust jacket of the book she had been reading only moments before. For some reason, Loki thought that she didn't approve of this situation any more than he did.

"Consider it my wedding gift to you." At least that way he wouldn't have to be bothered with buying them some kind of meaningless gift.

Rachel made a squeaking noise that was so obnoxious that even Elle cringed. It must have been an annoying habit the woman used regularly, because even though the nine year old used it herself, she looked as though she was going to say something negative about it. It would have been a first, and Loki almost wished that she would.

Nevertheless, he found himself smiling when she looked up at him, as though waiting for his approval to get excited. She fidgeted happily in her seat on the floor, and reopened her book on mythology.

Loki wondered what he was supposed to do about work for that week. If memory served, he was pretty sure that Elle had the summer off for holidays- though whatever holiday in the miserable realm lasted for three months, he'd been completely unable to tell. He supposed he'd have to talk to his manager about it.

In the time that he'd been working on Midgard, even while working in the kitchen, Loki hadn't once called in sick or been late. He'd gone in on time, done his work right, and left when he was supposed to. No point in being in any way other than _under _the radar.

Mayhap he'd have a vacation as well. Sure, he'd be stuck with Elle for a week, but why not at least try to enjoy himself?


	29. The Beach

Heat. Heat and humidity. Heat and humidity and sweat and a nine year old with an appetite for ice-cream.

And Loki was done. He really couldn't take this. He hated Midgards' summer almost as much as he hated the oafish, ignorant humans that resided there. The beach was of little help to relieve the agony of the brutal sunshine that threatened to eat up every last living thing in the city.

He would have rathered to have stayed in the apartment for the day, hiding behind air-conditioning and a fan. But there Loki was, sitting under an umbrella, pale skin sticking out from a pair of swim trunks that left him feeling rather exposed, despite their length.

A couple of women blushed and stared as they walked past, no doubt admiring his body. He felt mildly violated. Then again, it had been a long time since he'd enjoyed an intimate moment with someone. Sure, it was all just a physical longing, but even a god had needs. He gave his slyest smile to a couple of the better looking women and they rewarded him with flushed cheeks.

If the girl hadn't been under his watch for the week, Loki had no doubt he might have taken a couple of women home.

Elle was playing in the water, happily splashing around fifteen or maybe twenty feet in front of him. She had a beachball in her hands, and threw it towards a couple of older girls who had let her join in their fun.

Sure, he could have gotten into the water to cool off, but that meant venturing into the assaulting sunshine. No. For the moment, the shade under his umbrella was more than enough for Loki. He was on vacation, wasn't he? He did what he wanted, he thought with a smirk as he reclined on his towel, shutting his eyes.

Panting giggles reached his ears as Elle ran through the sand to their spot on the beach. She opened the cooler that she'd insisted on bringing, pulling out a sweating bottle of water.

"Loki," She smiled down at him. "Can I go play on the other end of the beach?"

"No." He didn't bother opening his eyes.

The whine. Elle had this noise that she made in the back of her throat when she disapproved of something that had been said, and Loki had nicknamed it "The Whine" because it reminded him of a starving dog.

"Please?"

"No. I'm to keep an eye on you. I cannot see you on the other end of the beach."

"You can't see me with your eyes closed, either." Elle retorted.

"I know where you are," He opened one eye, the flash of green focusing on the pink-faced girl as she dripped seawater on his face. "Do not leave this beach." Loki warned darkly.

She pouted. Sitting on her towel next to him, Elle fiddled with the long sleeves of the shirt she wore over her bathing suit.

"It's shady over there," She argued with him. "And cooler."

"You'd be plenty cool if you removed your cover."

Elle said nothing, and Loki felt a little bad for saying anything.

"They're nothing to be ashamed of."

"I just don't wanna get sun burnt." The word _burnt _left her lips in a short, near blip of a sound. Loki didn't say anything, but closed his eyes again, letting the sound of laughter and ocean waves lull his mind for the time being.

"Hey, Elle!" A female voice broke Loki from his relaxing state. Pushing his lips together he rolled over on his side, letting the heat of the sand relax his body as he rested. "You coming back out? Come on, we're gonna play chicken!"

Chicken? Wasn't a chicken a small, flightless Midgard bird?

"No…" Elle drew out the word. "I'm not allowed on the other end of the beach. I gotta stay here."

"Your dad say so?" The girl looked at Loki, piercing his head with her frown. "Hey, Mister. Let her come down to the deep end of the beach with us. We'll be careful."

"You're mistaken," Loki replied coldly. "I am neither her father, nor a relation." He might as well have been, for as much time as he'd been forced to deal with Elle of late.

"That's Loki." Elle sounded as though it explained every question the other girl might have asked. "And if he said no, I can't go."

"Come on, Mister! We'll be careful," The girl repeated.

"No."

"Please, Loki? Pretty please?" Elle joined in with the pleading. She was on her hands and knees in the sand, hovering over him again.

"Are you deaf, child? No! I think the answer changes not when you ask me, whether the please be pretty or otherwise!" Loki frowned heavily. "I cannot see you on that end of the beach and David asked me to watch you. Therefore my answer remains as it was; No."

Elle flopped back into the sand.

"Alright, well… Later."

"Go play in the water. Was that not why you wished me to travel in this abominable heat and miserable sun?" Loki opened his eyes long enough to give Elle a dirty look that told her that she'd better go play, or he was going to be very, _very _cross.

Leaving her bottle of water in the sand, Elle headed back out to the water. Loki watched her, propping up just a little on his elbows to make sure she wasn't going to wherever it had been she'd been begging to go before. Once she was back into the blue stuff, he laid down again.

Children were shrieking. Parents were laughing and chasing after children.

Of all the things in Midgard that Loki had to admit he enjoyed both the most and the least, it was the sheer number of families. Although it was a well hidden secret, Loki enjoyed watching the families that played in the park that was just off the apartment complex. Children were so rare in the palace in Asgard that he couldn't help but feel at least a little bit fascinated by them.

They were small, fragile –though surprisingly durable- packages of energy and curiosity. They ran endlessly, shrieked noisily and cried for nothing. In the endless time he had to himself since the siblings had moved out, Loki had read a book entitled _Peter Pan_.

He likened children to the little creature Tinker Bell; they were all so small that they didn't have enough room in them for more than one emotion at a time. So when human children were mad, they were naught _but_ mad. The same for when they were happy. Curious creatures.

But it wasn't just the children that caught Loki's attention. The families around them, as well. Mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles. Initially, Loki had thought that family lives were much different on Midgard than they were on Asgard, but the longer he remained, the more he discovered that the case was otherwise. And listening to the families, so many in such an area, was relaxing.

"Let me _go_!"

Loki knew that voice, and he didn't like the connotation of the sentence. Sitting up, he scanned the beach, spotting Elle with a group of older boys. One of them had a hold of her bathingsuit cover, with the loose mesh of the sleeve pushed all the way up her arm.

Frowning, he moved, getting off the blanket. The hot sand burned the bottoms of his feet as he strode across the shifting stuff, trying to ignore the fact that it messed up his balance. Snow, rain, storms, wind, mud- Loki could have walked through all of those with ease. But sand…

Elle slapped one of the boys.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled at him. He held his face, glaring at her.

"Jeeze, don't get so defensive." He put his hands up. "Just curious."

Crisis averted, and Loki hadn't even needed to get involved. That was a nice change of events. He stood by, just in case. Elle pulled her sleeve back over her scars, and looked down at her hand, feeling obviously self-conscious about everything that had happened.

"Are you alright?"

She smiled up at Loki, all traces of her momentary frustration gone. He wondered how old children would be before they were able to keep more than one emotion in them.

"I'm fine. They just… got nosey, I guess." Wiping sweat from her brow, and tucking her wet hair behind an ear, Elle looked out at the water. "Can we go home, now?"


	30. The Summers of Midgard

**_Because the Author is moving across the country this week, there will be a hiatus on the story from Sunday (June 24th) until the following Wednesday (July 4th). Please note; Though I normally reply to ALL reviews, I have been unable to of recent. I will also continue this ASAP. Thank you._**

On the last day of the week Elle was supposed to stay with Loki, Thor came knocking. And Loki had to admit, for the first time, he was a little bit surprised. The sun was shining, the skies were blue; there was nary a trace of a thunderstorm to be seen anywhere at all.

"Brother," Thor looked more tired than the last time Loki had seen him. He lifted his blue eyes to spot Elle on the balcony. She was laying on her stomach on the wood, feet in the air, head propped on her hand as she wrote in a notebook. "The mortals have returned to you?"

Loki shook his head, shutting the apartment door behind Thor. "No. I am doing her brother a deed and watching out for her until he returns tomorrow." He wondered what had brought Thor in such wonderfully dismal heat and without all of his thunder and rain and storming that usually came with.

He did not need to wonder for long.

"I bring ill tidings, brother." Thor seated himself on the couch. It groaned wearily under his build.

Loki did not like to look on his brothers' face.

"Jutunheim is in mourning for its King," Thor uttered with a rumble. "They demand their heir."

Even less than the look on Thor's face, he did not like the implications of the word _Heir_. He sank into the loveseat across from Thor, resting his cheek in his fingers.

"Laufey had a number of children, did he not? Hordes, if I recall. They should have little issue in finding a willing heir."

"None have made themselves better known than you, Brother."

Loki closed his eyes. He could almost hear Elle humming to herself on the balcony as she listened to the little music player that was covering her ears. Every now and again, a verse or two would slip from between the humming before she'd go back to just wiggling her feet in time with the music.

"I am banished," Loki uttered. He opened his eyes again, boring green holes through Thor's face. "I am no King, and will serve as no Heir to the throne of Jutunheim." Strange how relieving it was to confess that he was nobody's king. Loki had spent his entire life with his eyes on the proverbial prize. Now that he had finally managed to admit that he was uninterested… He felt a little lighter for it.

"The frost giants do not see it as such."

"And what would you have from me?" Loki sat up, his posture returning to the regality that he had once carried. "Should I return to the icy wastes and lead a people who would have left me as a bitch leaves the runt?" The bitterness fueled a chill in Loki's heart that he had tried to push down for what seemed like ever.

"Nay," Thor shook his head. "But I would warn you; have care in the days coming. There is utterance that Jutunheim is gathering forces among those of Niflheim and Muspellheim. We fear what they may be plotting an attack against the more peaceful realms."

_We_. Loki didn't miss the obvious hint that the armies were gathering. Well, what had this to do with him, anyway? Unless there was something Thor wasn't mentioning.

"If you like the child and her brother, I would suggest strongly that you keep your eyes sharp," Thor spoke softly. "So far as the Jutun are concerned, I keep your prisoner."

"Is it untrue?" Loki snarked.

"Are you in binds, brother? Are you not breathing fresh air? Does the sun not shine on your face each morn?" Thor turned his intense gaze on Loki, furrowing his brows. "Do you not eat and drink what you please, and walk in the streets without fear of apprehension?"

Loki couldn't deny any of what Thor asked him, but he knew that the answer to his question was _yes_. He was still a prisoner. He could not return to Asgard. He could not return to his mothers' understanding glance and warm embrace. He was still _stuck_ on this miserable mud-ball.

He wondered if the Jutun knew that _he_ had been the one to slay Laufey. If that were the case, they might have been looking for him as a leader _because_ he'd manage to kill the Monarch. Otherwise… Oh the ideas that ran through his mind. He didn't want to lead Frost Giants any more than he wanted to lead a herd of cows.

"My apologies," He uttered sourly. "The heat leaves me in foul mood."

It had been over a full earth year since the beginning of his punishment. Longer still since Loki had betrayed Asgard. For a moment, he wondered why it had taken so long for the call for an Heir to be put out. It had been… _A long time_. What a funny thought, really. On Asgard, a long time meant an age- far longer than a human lifetime. But on Midgard, a long time meant something entirely new.

Time was _actually _slower.

Loki hated it.

"I do not believe I have ever heard genuine apology from you, Brother," Thor spoke with a measure of wonderment.

"A first for everything," Loki repeated something he had heard a coworker utter not many days beforehand. He saw Elle as she shifted positions from belly to side. No point in arguing with Thor when things were beginning to look serious.

"We are gathering forces," Thor turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Noisily." Loki had no doubt about that. Thor was nothing, if not noisy. "With the hope of staving off ideas of attack."

"Yet you come here. What wish you from me? I've no useful magic- you've made sure of it."

Thor turned his gaze to the girl on the balcony in the sunshine. "You are right, Brother," His voice dropped. "And yet… I could not leave you defenseless should the battle come to this realm."

Curious. Loki rolled his fingers into his cheek. What exactly Thor meant by the comment, he wouldn't find out. Elle got up from her place on the balcony, grabbing the cup she had been using for water, and came inside. The larger Aesir greeted the young girl, reaching for the wrong hand. She jerked her arm away, holding it behind her back and dashed off to the spare room, shutting the door behind her with a bang.

"The scars," Loki explained. "She's sensitive about them."

Thor frowned. He pulled some fabric out of a pouch, and passed the round packet to Loki. The weight of the thing told the darker haired brother all he needed to know about what lay inside.

"I must return," He uttered with a padding of thunder. The skies outside were growing dark. "Before I leave, brother, tell me… Have you learned anything?"

"That Jutun do not like the summers of Midgard."

That was not the answer Thor was looking for, and Loki knew it.


	31. Cold Enough

**_This will be my final update before Hiatus. See ya'll in about a week!_**

Nothing happened for two years. Time on earth plodded along, dragging out like an eternity. Thor came twice a year, Apple in hand, and concern creasing his youthful face. He would tell Loki of all the happenings between the realms. There were scuffles throughout the other realms, including an attack that had been lead against Asgard. An attack that had ended in failure. No doubt this was in most part due to the immense power that The Mighty Thor of Asgard wielded. Not that Loki doubted any of the other warriors of the realm, but there was a reason that Thor was King and failure was not it.

With each visit, Loki could see that the weight of leadership was far heavier on Thor's shoulders than the hammer had ever been in his hand. He was making difficult decisions, the likes of which could put his friends, family, and subjects in dire straits if he chose wrong.

But it wasn't just the change in his brother that Loki saw. It was the change in himself. It had happened gradually. So gradually, in fact, that Loki hadn't even noticed until the summer before, when Elle had left the area for a month to venture to a summer camp that specialized in French Immersion. He had worried and paced and wondered if she was alright. He hoped nobody said anything to her about the scar on her arm. So help the idiot that bothered his loyal subject about the mark. Terrible punishments awaited those who dared.

Elle was just as frustrating as she'd ever been and as she had grown older had become more curious; even venturing so far as to come and see Loki on her own from time to time in order to demand stories and lore. At almost twelve years old, it was hard to call her _loyal_ to anyone. But he knew that she was loyal to him. Loki could see it whenever David teased her about what she had learned about The Nine Realms. She had defended everything he told her, as though the perceived fiction was its true form; truth.

David thought it was pretty adorable.

Loki saw the boy as no less loyal than the girl. He had on several occasions covered for Loki when work had wondered where he was. Those were the days when Loki had barely managed to stumble in after a night of drunken brawling, unable to see straight enough to make it into the job. David would tell their boss that he was covering for the dark haired man while he recovered from a flu or cold, or that he had needed the extra shifts and Loki had been kind enough to pawn his off on the boy.

Truthfully speaking, Loki tried his best not to care what either of the siblings thought about him, but it had become increasingly difficult. When Elle had come crying to him because she and Rachel had argued, he tried not to care, but smoothed over her feelings anyway. When the girl had returned to him because the grade four teacher had insisted that she wear the basketball uniform (Which had the short sleeves that Elle had come to loathe) he tried not to care, and advised her to wear sleeves under the jersey, anyway. When she had reached grade five and confided in her crush on a member of the boys' basketball team, Loki tried not to care, but had been forced to look into the boy to make sure he wasn't a trouble maker.

It was at about the time that he had felt obligated to keep said boy under watchful eye that Loki realized that even though he tried not to care, he really _did _care, and it got under his skin.

As he had ever done, he reasoned the whole thing up to the two being his loyal subjects. But the idea of calling either of them, especially the girl, by anything other than their names was beginning to bother him. He knew that Thor had noticed the gradual change. The older brother had prodded Loki for information on their relationships and lives, seemingly garnering great pleasure out of seeing that his brother was actually keeping up with them.

_That_ bothered Loki far more than the fact that he cared. But he did not mention it to Thor when he came around. Instead, he listened carefully to news about the movements of Jutunheim. He tried not to let on that things were changing. Somehow, Loki knew that Thor had an idea of what was going on. And Thor had been… Surprisingly unphased by it all. He waited patiently for his younger brother to finally tell him that he had learned something worthwhile. As though the fairer man had expected that Loki had changed enough that he could come home.

Not a fair assumption where Loki was concerned. Once he had been open to people that he had believed to be friends. They had betrayed him, walked on him; _ignored_ him. But neither David nor Elle ignored Loki and _they_ didn't even know who he was. For someone who had never been entirely too sure who he could trust it meant worlds.

It was late in October two years after Thor had mentioned the Jutun when Loki saw the first signs of other-realm activity. It had started with strange deaths outside the city. The newspaper had called them freak accidents, but Loki knew them for what they were: Frost Giants.

What he couldn't figure out was how they were moving around on Earth without help. He was a runt where giants were concerned; barely six foot three. As he appeared relatively human, the only thing that stood out about Loki was that he was relatively tall. He didn't quite _tower_ over most of the males he knew, but he was certainly a bit taller than most. Thor was even taller… And broader. And tended to garner a lot more attention when out in public.

But a full grown frost giant could be anywhere between eight and ten feet tall; sometimes taller. There would be no way to miss one of them wandering around in the city, disguise of pinkened flesh or not.

People were turning up dead. Frozen -most of them- through and through.

But it was about the time that the deaths started to happen in the city that Loki began to feel a settling sense of dread. There was a niggling fear in the back of his mind that he couldn't shake. Something that made him worry that David and Elle (And David's wife, Loki supposed) would end up in the fray of things once it happened. There was not a single doubt in Loki's mind. It would happen. It _would_.

The realization sat uneasily in his belly, a growing knot of ill that simply wouldn't let Loki rest. He hadn't seen Elle since a brief encounter at the grocery store the month before. Part of him wanted to go and visit; make sure they were doing alright. Figure an excuse, take a trip to their little apartment and spend some time with them.

He would catch himself thinking these things quite suddenly, and then wipe it all from his mind with a cold swipe. No. They were mortals. Mortal lives happened in no time at all. Sometimes they ended slowly, sometimes quickly; but all mortals eventually died.

_Death_.

The word made him sick. It made sense, he guessed. After all, was death not the enemy of the immortal? And without Idunn's apples, Loki was, well… _Not_.

A knock on his door startled Loki right out of his thoughts. He stood, walking through the dimness of the apartment, only pausing to the turn on the light of the entryway.

Elle was standing in front of the door, backpack over her shoulder. She fidgeted as Loki unlocked the door.

"It's dark," He frowned. "You should not be travelling at night without your brother."

"He hasn't come home yet." Elle looked up at Loki. "And he's not answering his cellphone."

"Where is Rachel?" Loki ushered Elle into the apartment, locking the door behind her.

"At the shelter."

"And did you try contacting her?"

Elle nodded. "Her phone is out of range." It made no sense. Neither David nor Rachel had phones that should have been out of range if they were in the city. The idea left a bad taste in Loki's mouth. At least he knew why Elle was at the apartment, though. If David wasn't home, then there was no way for her to get into _their_ apartment.

But it was close to eight o'clock. Rachel worked at the shelter overnight, and David should have been home at three. Something was wrong. Where had Elle been for the last four hours? Surely not waiting in the lobby of the apartment building? Knowing Elle, that was probably _exactly_ what she'd been doing. There were some days that Loki wondered if she was mentally stunted.

"You will stay here until your brother calls." It was a command, not a request. One that Elle seemed to wearily accept as she set her backpack down at the end of the couch. "Where have you been since you returned from school?"

Elle hesitated. "I was late."

This caught Loki's whole-hearted attention.

"Late?"

Elle looked away from him, eyes focusing on a spot on the wall behind the loveseat, rather than the green eyed man. She sat down on the couch, putting her hands under the backs of her knees.

"Elle. You will tell me why you were late."

"I had detention."

Detention? Loki wondered at the word. For a moment, he thought she'd been arrested. Judging by how she was acting, he was thinking that he was probably spot on.

"What did you do?"

"I got into a fight." Elle was red in the face. She hadn't yet taken off her jacket, and slouched deeply into the corduroy that had kept her warm against the autumn chill. "And we got caught. And then I got detention. And then… I might or might not have been suspended for a week."

Suspension; this one Loki had heard previously.

"Which is it?"

"I'm suspended." The girl pouted a little bit and then sighed heavily. "But she deserved it!" she defended almost instantly.

She? For the moment, thoughts of time, and frost giants, and heirs and Thor were gone. Elle had been in a fight, and from the sounds of it, a physical one. She had been known to verbally defend herself and her thoughts from time to time, causing a little bit of a ruckus between she and David, or she and Rachel, but this was the first time that Loki had ever heard of her getting physical with someone.

"What happened?"

Elle said nothing, frowning as she looked down at her feet.

"Danielle, you will tell me what series of events lead to this."

"She told me that I was making up the stories that you told me about the Nine Realms." Loki wondered at the sentiment, waiting for the girl to finish. "Then she said I was being stupid." He didn't think that was the end-game for the fight. Elle lowered her voice.

"Then she said I was lying when I told her how I got my scars."

_There _was the trigger. The scars had always been a defensive point for Elle. After so long with them, she would never be comfortable when people asked questions. The girl stood up, walking to the balcony doors to look out over the lit city.

"Who attacked first?"

"What's that?" Elle asked at the same time. She opened the sliding door, letting in a breeze of cold air. Colder than it had been earlier. Colder than it should have been, according to the predictions from the weather man.

Cold enough that several cars below had stopped moving, and cause an icy updraft of snow. Elle backed up again, once she had seen only a second of the scene below.

"Loki..?"

He grabbed her by the shoulder, jerking her back into the apartment, before slamming the glass doors shut and sliding down the lock- for all the good it would serve them. Somehow, he didn't think that Frost Giants and ice-spirits would be stopped by a sliding glass door.


	32. It's a High

_**At the moment, the Author is stuck without internet at home. However, writing has been done and awaits your view, dear readers!**_

Elle stared up at Loki as he pushed her into the kitchen and down behind the dividing half-wall that separated it from the living room.

"What were those things?"

Loki almost lied and told her she was dreaming again. He couldn't. The Jutun and their re-enforcements had arrived. They were either looking for him, or looking to kill him, and of which he couldn't tell. The possibility that they were just out to conquer had crossed his mind as well, but it had been many a century on Midgard since the last time they had tried to lead an attack on the realm.

And this was certainly no dream.

Of course, they had been testing their borders with Thor. The utterances that they were looking for an heir had not gone unheeded, but Loki genuinely wondered if it had been merely an excuse.

"Loki, what was that? What's happening?" Elle had a hold of his shirt, staring up at him with fear in her eyes. "David..!"

"If he's wise, he'll have stayed out of the way," Loki untangled her fingers from his clothing. "I've no doubt that he was just coward enough to do so." He didn't mean it the way it sounded, but there wasn't an ounce of question in his mind that David had thought far enough in advance about Elle and his wife that he would have hidden, rather than attacking anything he saw. Cowardice, maybe; but it was also wisdom and love that would have kept the man from leaping into the fray. Even if only because he didn't want to get stuck raising a little kid, Loki was at least grateful for it.

"You stay." He commanded Elle firmly. To make sure she did as she was told, he gave her his most menacing look. "You _will _stay." He repeated. Relieved to see the expression of compliance on the young girls' face, Loki stood.

In his bedroom was the package that Thor had given him two years before. Until that moment, Loki hadn't opened it. He had known it wasn't one of Idunn's apples when his brother had passed him one directly afterward. And maybe Loki had known all along what it was, and had chosen to refuse to believe that Thor would have done something so stupid and reckless.

Now he was grateful for it. Opening the fabric, Loki was pleased- maybe mildly relieved- to find that he was right in his assumption. Gleaming in his hand was one of the medallions of his power, glinting gold and brass in his hand. It wasn't a grant of his full power, but it would be enough to defend he and the girl if necessary.

Certainly, he could have used it prior for other things. But the thought- though it had crossed his mind a number of times- had turned stale at the idea that Thor had given it to him to prevent him from being defenseless in the face of danger. With what little it provided of his full magics, he knew he could keep the two of them safe until Thor and his _own_ re-enforcements arrived.

Funny how Loki's mind had turned to the safety of the child. She was, for all intents, his prison. Her life was his sentence. If she died, his sentence was over. He could return to his mother. Nary a thought otherwise crossed Loki's mind. In the last few years, he had learned a lot. Even Thor had seen it

He'd learned so much, in fact, that he couldn't help but feel defensive over Elle and her brother. He, who had grown up in a lie of a family, who had learned he was naught but a monster, who had been cast out and welcomed in again, thrown on his knees and drawn to his feet… Loki had not learned everything there was to know, but he knew that the girl and her brother considered him family, without nary a shadow to be seen.

Elle looked up to Loki as a child did to her hero. The thought lifted his spirits and his shoulders.

Rather than the enemy of his brother and the angry, outcast son of both Laufey and Odin, Loki was in the position that Thor had seen many times; one of the hero, with all of the responsibilities and expectations of it all.

Frost crackled over the windowpane, and Loki left the bedroom, still holding the medallion in his hand. He ducked behind the half wall with Elle. She huddled close to him, trembling in her fear.

The glamour of his mortal clothing left, leaving Loki in the leather and metal garb that he had arrived to Midgard in. It was so familiar and so pleasant that for a moment, the man forgot that he had ever bothered to wear the rough, uncomfortable mortal clothing. Placing the metal amulet on his bracer, he felt it attach. The circle of plain metal blended into the metal of his armor, grooves and enchantments appearing as it all became one solid piece. Power ran the length of his arm, filling him with the light that he had grown up with. After having been without it for what seemed like an age, it was intoxicating.

"That's _much_ better," Loki smiled to himself, testing his magic, sending out little waves of sensory to get his bearings. He could feel Elle's presence beside him. There were two frost giants, and several ice spirits around the building. Oh, yes. This was _much_ more like it!

"L-Loki?"

Loki tried not to get too full of himself. He had a limit of magic that the medallion would allow him, but damn if it wasn't enough to make him high. He smiled at Elle, pearly teeth hinting at a madness that threatened to take him over.

Elle had moved away suddenly, staring at the Prince with wide, scared eyes. "What's happening?" The trepidation made him pause, forcing him out of his power-lust. She was afraid of him. No. She was afraid of what was happening. Or him. His inability to decipher her thoughts frustrated Loki.

Forcing the heat in his blood to cool, Loki took a couple of deep breaths.

"It's alright," He promised her. Reaching out, he took her by the wrist. "You're afraid, as you _should_ be. But you need not fear me." She _did_ need fear him, he corrected himself, though it seemed that she never had before. If Elle was afraid of him in his Asgardian garments, she would be even more terrified should she have ever seen his blue skin and true heritage.

She trembled under his grasp.

"Have I ever hurt you? Are you dead?" He demanded. She shook her head. "Use your sense; If I had intended to harm you, I would have done it long before now, girl." Loki mused. There had been a number of times he had seriously considered it, but he had never acted upon the instincts, firstly because he had feared the consequences of those actions, later because he'd grown to give a damn.

"What are you?"

"Tis not the time," He told her firmly. "But you need not consider me any less than a friend." What was he saying? A friend? But it was true, wasn't it? _Now was not the time_.

"You will stay here," He said once more. "You will be safe." The words were meant to be assuring. Somehow, Loki faltered at reassurances, however, and it all sounded as though he were commanding the girl to stay safe. In a way he was. But that wasn't what he meant.

Looking down at Elle, He tried to give her the smile that he had known Thor to give maidens while protecting them. The fear in Elle's eyes changed to worry. He'd failed. Well, Hero-worship was better left in the hands of heroes, Loki thought. He was no hero. He was still a monster, whether he wore the guise of a mortal or an Aesir. He was still one of them.

Well, nothing to be done about it now, was there? Striding across the room, to the balcony window, Loki gathered his newly found courage and his renewed magics.

"I am Loki, Prince of Asgard. You will cease your actions." He smiled, standing on the wood railing of the balcony as he gathered his magic in his hands in preparation for battle. "But please… Make this fun for me." He added giddily.

The Frost giants were going to let him have some fun.

Loki was alright with that.


	33. Like Old Times

Humans scattered like ants from a destroyed mound. They were screaming and shouting and trying to hide, but there was no hiding from the ice spirits. Many humans, frozen to the spot, mouths open with silent screams, were lost to the halls of the dead.

Loki stood among a circle of Frost Giants. Indeed, they had hoped for the Heir to the throne of Laufey- but it had had not been he that they were looking for, and Loki made that very clear. Magic thrummed through his palms and his head as he defended a group of humans that were trying to escape.

Re-enforcements were taking too long, he decided at about the time that he saw an elderly woman hit the ground in a thousand frozen shards. She had been defenseless. Once, Loki would have reveled in the agony of the humans that scattered beneath the rising power of the giants. Now, he felt only remorse. Were he strong enough, he might have been able to protect them all.

The distraction gave a particularly large Jutun enough time to pin Loki beneath a car. He left his foot on the flipped vehicle, keeping the dark haired Aesir in place as he gloated in All-Tongue before raising his spear.

"The runt-son of Laufey dies, and the mighty son rises to the occasion!"

Head leaving his shoulders in a rather spectacular display of blood and metal, Loki was relieved to feel the weight of the foot lift from the car that kept him down. Using his magic and his own Jutun strength, Loki slid out from under the vehicle, gasping for air. How could he have been so stupid to let his guard down like that?

"Like old times, Brother!" Thor landed beside him. "Here I am, saving you!"

"I believe it was the other way 'round, Thor." Loki sent a blast of light into the face of a giant that had been charging toward them. "Where are your friends? Or are you so full of pride that you believe yourself able to take an entire army of Jutun on your own?"

Thor laughed deeply, swinging his hammer again. It left his hand with a ringing hum, returning with the blood of another giant dripping down its uru surface. An arrow buzzed past the two of them on the ground. It burst into flames, burning a hole through an Ice Spirit that breathed lifeless chill over a building full of cowering mortals.

"I always bring backup!" Thor took too much merriment out of the battle. A glance back to his brothers' fair face told Loki that the King was serious about it all, though. It was a relief.

"Never thought I'd be fighting with you."

"A pleasure to see you again, Barton. Glad to see you putting your skills to use." Loki uttered sourly. He didn't mean a word of it, except he really _was_ grateful to have the archer on their side.

"Clear the civilians! This building's going down!" Loki heard a familiar voice call through Clint's earpiece. A rumble behind him told Loki that 'this building' wasn't one he wanted to look back to. He did, despite himself. Captain America was hurrying civilians out of the building. He was relieved to see Elle among them.

"You tell your Captain of America that he'd better make sure the young one is safe," Loki spoke as the Hulk jumped on one of the frost giants. "Or I'll hang his head on my prison cell wall."

"You hear that Cap?"

Loki didn't hear a reply. The Hulk was roaring with rage and frustration as the Jutun grabbed his leg to pull him off. Green flesh turning sickly black, he put his entire hand through the eye of his captor, grabbing blindly at whatever lay behind it. The giant stopped moving, his hand releasing the leg of the beast.

The Hulk roared again, the sound echoing from every building, street and crevice of the city. Giants turned their attention to the new battle. People were still scurrying like ants. From somewhere nearby, a rather loud voice announced that he had something covered. Another skirmish was taking place from the sounds of it.

As Loki drove a razor of ice and magic through the throat of another giant, he watched as ice-spirits left the area. Eyes following the trail, he caught sight of what might have been the largest man he'd ever seen. Red uniform stretching as he battled one of the largest giants hand-to-hand, He turned the head of his opponent until it snapped.

Loki looked back at his brother and his use of Mjolnir. The woman he recognized as Romanov was helping Captain America lead civilians away from battle.

Fighting next to his brother, like he had as a youth, alongside the people who had fought for his imprisonment, against his own flesh and blood; this was the last thing Loki ever expected to do.

The mortals that Captain America had been trying to escort away were surrounded by spirits of Ice and Cold. The spirits crackled noisily, like breaking ice over water. They didn't speak, but no words were needed in order to understand that they were hostile.

Elle huddled between two adults. She was scared. Even more scared than she had been in the burning homeless shelter as a child. She was so cold that she couldn't feel her fingers or her toes. Her cheeks were burning. Where was David? Where was Rachel? Where was Loki? Why had he left her alone in the apartment? Sure she'd been scared of what was happening when she saw _whatever it was_ happening with him. And the expression on his face had been pretty darn scary, too. But now she was just scared and worried.

The man who had been standing to the left of her fell, his body burnt by the cold of the beings that had them surrounded. She let out an involuntary cry of surprise, throwing her hands over her mouth. The entire situation played out like a science fiction novel. There was a man in a metal suit flying around, shooting at these beings, another one who was just as big as some of the giants, if not bigger in some cases. The man that looked like Loki's brother was flying.

And Loki… Elle couldn't find him in all the chaos. David crossed her mind yet again. Her brother had to be alright. Loki had said he was alright. He _had _to be alright. She knew that calling David a coward wasn't a very nice thing to say, but she knew he had to be okay. If David died…

A building came crashing down as the giant man in red was toppled by a group of spirits and blue giants. One of them creatures stopped, and grabbed at his head, thrashing about. The beast stopped moving, hitting the ground with a thump.

"Good job, Jan," Elle heard the enormous man comment as he pushed off two more of the giants. "Don't let 'em touch you!" He warned his team mates with a loud hiss as he grabbed his chest. Elle didn't want to know why he was shouting that warning.

The big man who had coaxed her out of the apartment and behind his shield grabbed her, throwing her under him as a blast of something hit them. She wondered where the other adults were. What had happened to them? From the groans and irritated shouts, they must have been nearby.

"You okay?" The man in blue asked.

Elle nodded.

"Okay, you stay close to me, I'll get you somewhere safe, okay?"

No, it wasn't okay. "Where's Loki?"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Kid. I think he's doing fine." Captain America had to admit that he was a little surprised to find the girl so worried about the psychotic Asgardian Prince. "Believe me, he's holding his own. But right now, you need to stick with me, okay?"

Elle nodded, despite herself. She caught a glimpse of Loki in his strange looking clothing. He was dealing with a group of the same beasts that had surrounded them for a moment before being obliterated by the blasts from the person in the flying suit of metal. She was following the man with the shield on his arm. He threw it, making a sound of unsurprised annoyance when it went _through _the spirit that was about to attack a red haired woman.

"Keep running!" He shouted back to both Elle and the adults that were left from the attack. "Find shelter! _Go_!"

Elle stumbled over rubble, slipping on think frost and sheets of ice that had been left behind by the alien attackers. She looked over her shoulder, checking to see if she was able to spot Loki. He had vanished from sight, but she didn't think he was hurt. If he had been, Elle thought -for some reason- that she'd know. She'd just _know_.

But she couldn't help but worry, anyway.


	34. Cowardice

David clutched his leg, the burn of frostbite eating away at his exposed and broken flesh so painfully that he almost screamed from it. Instead, he bit down on the end of his belt, trying to stave off the bleeding that was coming from the half-frozen wound.

The enormous blue monster that had attacked him was lying in a pool of its own blood, which trickled around the tires of the forklift that had impaled it, running down the drainage holes of the warehouse floor and vanishing into the sewers. There were no other giant things around, but David hadn't desired to go looking for them, either.

It had struck him with what had seemed to be ice, breaking the flesh down to the bone, ripping it away before grabbing the man by the same wound. Icy winds howled through the warehouse. David could hear nothing else but that wind and his heartbeat. He was feeling lightheaded. It had to have been from blood loss. He was no doctor, but the sheer amount of open flesh and bright, fluid blood couldn't have been a good sign.

Pulling the belt even tighter, he used the boxcutter that had been in his pocket to clip a hole to stop the buckle from sliding.

This was not his idea of a good Monday.

"Young!" An older man was shouting for David from nearby. "Mother 'a God!" He stared at the blood and the giant, taking in the sight of the beat impaled on the machinery. When his vision landed on David, the immigrant turned instantly pale. "That thing touch you?"

David nodded in agony.

"Ain't tight 'nuff." William knelt next to the younger man, taking the belt in his hands. "You need t'bite, then bite. No screamin' now. 'S fer sissies." Ripping the belt tighter than David would have managed on his own, the younger man groaned loudly, rolling his head back in a gesture of seismic pain.

"You'll be jus' fine." The white haired man promised. "Once th' blood stops." If it stopped at all. How long had he been bleeding like that? "How'd you stop th'bastard?"

"Accident," David confessed between gasps of pain. "It turned, I hit it!" He grabbed for the belt, but William held it away from him.

"Fire works best." William tied off the belt with hands that were all too skilled. "They dun' like it. Turns 'em all wobbly, like'a new calf."

Good to know.

"Us in th'bays lit a bunch'a them with petrol. Worked wonders."

David didn't care. His thoughts were entirely on the pain. Then they switched to his sister. Then his wife. Then the pain again. Were Elle and Rachel alright? Elle would be scared that he hadn't been home. He prayed she'd had the sense to either stay put, or find Loki. At least with the older man, he was relatively sure she'd be safe. But Rachel. Rachel at been at the homeless shelter. If something had happened, there was no way she would have made it to the apartment. She probably would have stayed put.

He prayed to whatever God would listen- any God at all- that she was safe.

"Where's Day?"

William shook his head. "Poor boy- froze stiff by th'lot. Him 'n Goode, too."

That left only four others from morning crew unaccounted for. The three men who had been working with David were dead. He hoped the others had managed to find shelter and safety.

He hoped Elle and Rachel had done the same.

"Are there any survivors in here?" An unfamiliar voice came from the open bay doors of the warehouse. "Holy shit…" The voice dropped in tone. "The blood."

"We over here!" William shouted. He looked down at David with a tiny smile. "There, now. Crews a'comin' to pick us up. You'll be right s'rain soon."

Several men in simple black suits came around the boxes. One of them made a call from what appeared to be a communications piece in his ear. He was reporting on the damage.

David was starting to lose the ability to focus. His heart was so loud and so soft at the same time. William looked strange. The silvery whiskers of the old man's face blending, fading…

"Elle."

Back against the wall of a building, the young girl stared up at the death that awaited her. The spirit shifted its ether form, a face appearing for nothing but a brief second, before vanishing into swirling ice and wind. The ache of the cold filled her body as it breathed a little against Elle's face.

The adults that had been running with her had gone down one by one. Now it was just she and a young man, who was shaking, begging for mercy and crying. Elle was crying as well, but she couldn't find the words to beg for her life. Even if she had been able to, it probably wouldn't have done much good.

Whimpering her brothers' name as she shrank against the wall, trying to flatten herself, willing herself invisible to the beast. She shrieked when the young man grabbed her by the arm, throwing her in front of himself. Her scar ached as the flesh began to freeze. Shutting her eyes, Elle waited.

"_Coward_!" A sound, sort of like the hissing of steam reached Elle's ears. The burning cold vanished. "Should I kill you where you stand, it would be too merciful a death!" There was a snarl. "But should I make it as slow and _excruciating_ as you deserve, it would be time too much wasted!"

Elle opened her eyes, turning her head to see Loki with the boy that had pushed her in front of himself. His hand was wrapped around the throat of the perceived threat.

"_Worm_."

"You will not kill him, brother!" Elle gasped for breath as someone else spoke the words she had struggled to find. "Surely he be the coward among cowards, lowest of low... But we've another task at hand."

Thor landed with a thump on the ground beside Elle.

Loki seethed with rage that had come on suddenly when he'd witnessed the scene. What sort of beastly creature would throw an innocent child out to the wolves? He snarled something that was a mix of his frustration and fury before throwing the young man to the ground. He turned his attention to an ice spirit, taking it down with a blast of flames.

The hissing, much like the steaming sound from before, filled Elle's ears. Loki's roar of annoyance drowned it out. She covered her ears to the sounds, trying not to think about what was happening around her.

She wished she knew where David was.


	35. Elle's Fears

The battle had carried on, but just as quickly and suddenly as it has started, it was all over. Loki stood panting, his body shaking from abuse of what power the medallion had granted him. He was drunk on the power that coursed through him, battle magic that needed continual release after such a fight.

They were victorious. Not without injuries, and neither were they without civilian casualties… But they had been victorious. To the left of him, Thor stood, hammer in hand, assessing the damage. To the right, civilians were coming out into the open, venturing to see what had happened and who had won.

They disgusted Loki. _Vile, petulant beasts_, no better than _cows_; Nay, less than cows. No better than _rats_. _Snakes_. _Ants_. He looked down at Elle, who stared up at him as a first responder checked her purpled fingers for signs of damage. She would be alright. He paced the unbroken concrete of the roads. Thor stopped him.

"Where are you going?"

"To find her brother," Loki replied tersely. "She worried for him. I will find him." He tried to ignore the weight of his brother's hand on his shoulder.

"Do not leave her, Brother."

"She fears me."

"I think otherwise." Thor turned Loki to face where Elle watched him from the rear of the first responder van. "She worries for you as well. Go to her, brother. Soothe her fears firstly."

"Release me." Loki grumbled, jerking away from Thor. "The look she gave me… If you had but seen it."

"If you leave, you will upset her."

Loki shook from the subsiding adrenaline, but he realized that some of the shaking was coming from an emotion of hurt that had hit him when he realized that Elle was afraid. Hadn't that been what he wanted? Were humans not to _fear_ him? Cower before him? Worship him as the god he was? So why was it so upsetting to see one stupid, insignificant girl scared of something as simple as his glamour vanishing?

"Loki!" Elle ran across the debris, ducking under the hands of two police officers that were trying to survey the damage. Panting, she grabbed him by his hand. "Are you okay?"

She was touching him again. Loki would have drawn his hand away, but she held firmly onto his fingers and palm, both hands clasping the one. He looked down at her hands around his, lifting his arm to shake her off. Elle continued to hold on.

"Release me."

"Listen, Miss," A police officer took Elle by the arm. He glanced up at Loki briefly in apology before trying to lead Elle away. "You can't stay here, this area's unsafe." Loki had no doubt that if the man in uniform had known who he was; he would have promptly turned and run away. He watched as Elle pulled her arm away from the officer.

"No. I'm staying with Loki."

The officer opened his mouth to argue, but Loki stopped him with a cold glance. He put his free hand on Elle's head. "She will remain with me." Thor looked too happy with the reaction, smugly turning his hammer in his hand as he looked down at Elle. Crouching down to her level, he smiled broadly.

"You have seen my brother do much this day."

Elle nodded. "He saved me a second time." She continued to hold firmly to Loki's hand. He felt something warm creeping into his heart as she looked up at him. "But I was scared at first, because I didn't know what was happening." She was honest. Completely, utterly honest and that both terrified and relieved Loki all at once.

"Then you fear him not?"

Elle shook her head no. Thor smiled even wider, standing to his full height and patting his brother on the shoulder. "And nothing was there to worry for," He said with a chuckle. "I will attend to my fellows."

Loki opened his mouth to protest Thor leaving, and then shut it tightly closed again when he realized that Elle was still watching him.

"We will go search for your brother." He uttered quietly. "Come." Elle followed behind him, her steps far less certain than Loki's own. She stumbled over rubble, but kept one hand firmly in Loki's. He could hear her struggling to keep up, and felt the jerking of her hand against his as she tripped, but Loki did not turn to help her. If she wanted to be with him, then so be it, but she had better not expect him to help her at every turn! Still, he pulled her hand, forcing the girl to take extra quick steps so that she fell in line beside him.

"Keep up," Loki commanded. "Else return to the officers."

Elle nodded her head, and kept up as best she could. She was surprised to see the strange, shimmering magic cause Loki's normal clothes appear. It made her flinch, but she didn't draw away from his grasp. He paused in his step, looking down at the child.

"You are afraid."

"Surprised," Elle corrected. "It's just… You can use magic." She looked up at Loki in awe. "It's kinda scary, but… It's kind of neat." Scary could have been used in a number of other ways, but never to describe Loki's magic, he thought. Certainly, had he his full measure there were things he could do that would make the little girl simper in fear… But he cannot bring himself to do anything. Loki can't even manage to _imagine_ showing her some of the more frightening spells he knows.

"There's nothing to fear," He advises shortly. "It's only glamor." At the look of confusion that he was certain the girl was giving, he added; "An illusion to make me more… appealing."

"Where are we going?"

"To find your brother."

Elle paused at those four words. She had thought about David, and pushed him back from her mind, thought about him again, and pushed the thought away again. What if he was hurt? What if he had been frozen like the people who had been killed by the strange, surreal creatures? Her heart ached. Her chest tightened.

She had tried not to think about David, because she hadn't wanted to think about the very possible outcome that he might have been dead. The idea seized hold in her mind instantly, and it didn't escape Loki. He turned, facing her with a creasing frown on his face.

"Calm yourself," He took her by the shoulders, bending just enough that she'd be able to see the focus of his eyes. "You cannot accompany me like this. I was wrong. You should stay with my brother and his companions."

"No!" Elle protested. "I want to see David!"

"No. You are not calm enough." And Odin forbid if they were to come across the body of the boy. Loki had seen many dead before, but Elle… He could see the terror on her face already, and they had not yet seen anything that might have proven her brother to be anything less than alive.

"I'm not staying!" Elle protested louder.

"Quiet yourself." Loki retorted sharply. "You know not what you ask."

"I know what I'm asking." Elle took Loki by the hand again, both her hands over his. "I want to make sure he's alright. I have to, Loki." Tears were spilling from her eyes, over her face. The girl looked so pathetic that the God had to take pity.

"Then stop," He ordered quietly. "Keep up, keep silent, do as I say and stay calm."

She nodded obediently.

Loki wished he hadn't been so soft with her. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they found the boy frozen dead.


	36. Candidly Speaking

_**The author would like to thank all readers for the patience and beautiful reviews. We've only recently received internet in our new home, and thus, I've been unable to post. That being said- expect all new posts to be slow, and possibly even spotty for a little while, due to the passing of the author's step-father. **_

If it hadn't been for a lingering SHIELD Agent, neither Elle nor Loki would have known that David was in the nearby hospital. After several nights of long worrying, the verdict came; He'd survive. The wound would heal. David would be fine.

But he would lose part of the muscle in his leg as a result of the severe frostbite. He'd be lame.

Elle had cried on Loki's shoulder over it, although the trickster god felt as though she should have just been grateful that the boy was alive to begin with. Few mortals stood up to any full grown frost giant and lived to tell the tale- especially with an injury so considerably insignificant.

Besides; now the siblings were a matched set. Elle with her scar and David with his newly lamed leg.

Rachel stayed by David's side as long as she could. But her job was the only income that their little home was bringing in, and David's insurance would only cover so much where bills were concerned. And _of course_ this meant that Loki had to deal with Elle on a regular basis.

Which meant questions. Lots. And Lots. Of questions.

She wanted to know about his magic. How had he learned it? Could she learn it? Did he have a lot of magic, or just a little? Was it limited? Did it grow? And how had he made the 'normal' clothes turn into the more exciting and interesting clothing of his home realm? And would he teach _her_ how to use magic?

Sitting across from the girl, he ate a few bites of his dinner.

"Do you miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"Asgard." Elle pushed her plate away in disinterest.

"Why would I long for a place that holds nothing for me?" The question could have been a lie, if Loki had considered it long enough. The answer was yes; he missed Asgard. He missed his mother. He could even confess to missing his would-be brother. And if someone pried long enough (Which Elle could undoubtedly do)the man might have even been able to admit that he missed being worshipped as a god.

"Is that why you came here? Because you didn't want to be there anymore?"

But Gods she was nosey. There was no way he was going to tell her about his punishment, though. He needed a story- some kind of lie. Why was it that he could lie to everyone, but now that some little mortal girl asked him a question that hit too close to home, he struggled?

"Does it matter why I'm here?" He demanded, finishing the last of his potato. "I'm here, aren't I? Is that not what matters?" Could she not be happy that he was dealing with her at all?

Elle blinked, looking up at Loki. She looked back at her half-eaten plate.

"Sorry."

Brilliant. Now he's gone and… Loki groaned.

"Why must you do that?" he complained grumpily. At Elle's confused expression, he clarified. "Apologize for nothing done wrong."

She licked her lips in thought, the pink of her tongue just barely darting as Elle leaned back in her chair.

"I… dunno. It's just…" she hesitated. "You sounded upset, so I felt bad." The girl looked back to the prince in front of her. "Hey.. can I ask you something?"

"Have I yet stopped you?" Loki pondered dourly. Even if he said no, odds were that the girl would ask him anyway. That was her nature; one that he could have found endearing if it happened a little less often.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Elle pushed around the vegetables on her plate with the fork. "I mean. I don't think we would have cared where you came from. Or that you know magic. Or any of that."

She would have, Loki disagreed. He could still remember the look on her face when she'd seen him using his frost-magic. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table as he folded his fingers together.

"I didn't tell you because you never asked," He replied simply. It was the easiest answer to give, and the one with the least resistance. "And I didn't have the ability to use my magics until I used the medallion." The same one that still remained on his armor. The one that Thor hadn't yet asked for him to return.

He privately hoped that the blonde would either forget, or not ask for it. Both were possible.

Elle looked dissatisfied by his answer. She let the fork drop from her fingers noisily.

"And… That." She chewed her lip. "When you put it on.." Her voice trailed. For a moment, she had been going to tell him that he had looked wild and untamed- frightening. "You looked different."

Loki nodded. "I imagine I did."

"You wouldn't hurt me and David and Rachel, right?"

Ah, it finally tipped. The girl really was afraid after all! Loki tilted his head, setting his chin on the backs of his hands in thought. Shutting his eyes, he considered his options for answers. Would he have hurt any of the three of them? Possibly Rachel, yes. The woman got on his nerves. David… Well; David had shown backbone in a place when no other human might've. He could at least respect that.

And Elle. Curious, strange, irritating Elle…

"No." He admitted. "Though I confess the occasional fantasy of strangling your sister-in-law with that red hair she's so proud of." He snorted. "She's… _trying_."

Elle blinked in surprise. She had expected Loki to be as he ever was; blunt and never soft-tipped about anything. She had _not _expected him to voice his dislike of Rachel so candidly. Then again, as much as Elle liked the red-head, there were times when she couldn't stand her, either!

"Yeah. She's kinda annoying sometimes."

It was Loki's turn to be surprised. So far as he knew, Elle and Rachel got along just fine. He didn't peg her for ever being displeased with her brother's choice of wife.

"You- do not get along?"

Elle shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes we fight. About school. And chores. But… it's normally about David."

Loki didn't know how to take the comment, and his eyes opened in confusion and mild horror. Surely the girl wasn't interested in her brother in the same way that the man's wife was! His obvious confusion triggered a surprised blush from Elle.

"How he raises me, I mean."

Relief. Oh thank the ever-living world's tree!

"You and Thor are both… like…" Elle changed the subject. "You're both _really _those gods, aren't you? The ones from the stories you tell me?"

Rolling his top lip into his mouth, Loki considered the answer.

"We are."

Elle didn't say anything else. But that night, she asked for a new story.

Loki obliged.


	37. Short Hair and Rain

Elle was fifteen the next time she saw Thor. She had only recently cut off all of her dark hair, much to the dismay of her brother and, maybe a little more surprisingly; Loki. Rachel had said that it suited her. Neither of the men agreed. The athletic girl had decided that keeping it as long as it was, was just too cumbersome to bother with if she was going to be running around with the boys all the time. Cutting it off only made sense, she'd argued.

Of course, neither of the men had agreed.

She was on her way up to Loki's apartment, bookbag hanging heavily from one shoulder as she smashed the button that would call the elevator.

"Come _on_," the girl moaned. She was soaked. The thunderstorm that had rolled in over the city had caught everyone off-guard, including herself. The dampness made her sweater stick to her arms, rubbing roughly against the scar tissue of the one.

"Impatience suits you little," The rumbling of thunder had been cut short by the sound of the oddly familiar voice.

Snorting through her nose, Elle turned to look at the offending voice. Blinking in surprise as she ended up nose-to-chest with a much larger man, it took her a minute to figure out who it was.

"Oh!" She looked up. "Oh, hey! I know you! You're… You're Thor!" She smiled.

He raised his eyebrows. After a moment, he smiled. "Oh! Little one! Are you here to see my brother as well?" She'd grown so much.

Ella nodded with a little smile.

"Ah, but your lovely locks…" Thor touched her head. "What happened?"

This? _Again_?

Elle frowned, removing herself from under the hand that had settled on her dark hair. "Hey! I like my hair like this, y'know! What's with you and Loki and David and my hair?" She screwed up her face in irritation. "Seriously! Like you've never seen someone with short hair before?"

"Nay; never a maiden!" Thor protested, although it hadn't been entirely true. Natasha had kept her hair relatively short for a woman . And the woman he had come to know as Janet kept hers pretty short as well. But he had to admit his disappointment at seeing that Elle had chosen to cut hers off as well. "The woman of Asgard keep their hair long."

The doors of the elevator opened. Elle stepped inside. She wasn't surprised when Thor came in after her. He grinned as she pressed the button for the floor they wanted.

"Haven't seen you since the whole… frost-giant thing." Elle looked up at him. "Where do you go between visits to Loki, anyway?"

Thor arched his brow.

"I return to Asgard," he replied simply.

"Do you miss him while you're gone?"

"I do. Very much so."

Elle said nothing else as the elevator went up. Thor couldn't help but wonder if the shortness in her attitude was a rub-off from his brother. She gave him a cold shoulder, he thought.

"How fare your brother?" The elevator doors opened a second time and Thor let her step out before him. He couldn't help but notice the hesitation as she looked away.

"He's fine." She mumbled. Truthfully speaking; David was _not_ fine. He had trouble adjusting to his new life, and even more trouble adjusting when Rachel had left. He spent most of his days sleeping away his pain between one hand full of prescription painkillers and the other one full of crumpled bills that disability wouldn't entirely cover. She was glad that Loki hadn't minded that she had begun to spend more time at the apartment.

"Yet you look so saddened by the idea," Thor countered.

"It's not your business," Elle replied icily. Her shoulders sunk suddenly as she felt guilty for being so short. "Sorry," She mumbled. "It's not like that. It's just a long story, and, y'know; I just don't know you, right?" She ran her fingers through her wet hair and reached out to knock on Loki's door.

He opened it before she could.

"Thor." Loki greeted with a sour expression. "I knew it was you, as soon as the thunder started. Have you never heard of subtlety?" He groaned as the larger God grabbed him in an embrace, but didn't bother protesting. What was the point? Once he was released from the grasp, Loki turned his attention to Elle.

"You're back?" He asked. "We you not just here yesterday?"

"Was that humor, brother?" Thor asked in surprise.

"Sometimes it's better not to ask," Elle replied, passing the two men to enter the apartment. She dropped her backpack on the floor and removed her wet sneakers. She peeled off the socks and left them hanging over the heels of her shoes.

"Come in, if you must." Loki backed away, letting Thor pass. He shut the door again with a soft click.

Thor watched Elle with curiosity. Yes, he decided. She'd been around Loki for a little too long. The way she sank into the loveseat in the living room, legs spread, looking too much like a young man than a young woman… _Far _too long around Loki.

"Brother, if I'm intruding."

"Nothing has ever stopped your intrusions before," Loki countered, smoothing his t-shirt. Had it already been so long since he received the last of Idunn's apples? He was losing track of time in this mortal realm.

"Elle, put your legs together," Loki scolded. He found it frustrating that she was acting like so much a boy. She was a girl- nearly a woman by Midgard's standards- she should be acting like one! He noticed that she had left her sweater on. Thor would never say anything negative about the scars, and ye the child still insisted on keeping herself covered. She was brazen, rash, and boyish with the sensibilities of a bull most days… And yet she was still worried over people's reaction to the marks on her arm. She didn't appear to care about the things that girls were supposed to care about, and yet she was vain about that one, singular thing.

Nobody would ever be able to convince Loki that females were anything at all less than confusing.

"There is a spare bed in your apartment again," Thor hadn't yet had a seat.

"Yes," Loki sighed grouchily. "Your powers of observation, brother…"

Thor chuckled, but didn't reply to the half-hearted insult. He sat down across from Elle, who had drawn her legs up onto the couch, curling like a cat as she hung both arms over the couch. She was watching Loki as he passed her a can of cola.

"Thanks."

"I must ask you to leave," Loki spoke quietly, but firmly. "Go downstairs. Visit that… male friend of yours."

"He has a name. It's Tod." Elle didn't miss the tone of disdain, "And besides that; you know he's gay, right?"

Loki didn't care if the kid was happy, or pissed, or wearing a rainbow colored, cheap satin ballgown. He didn't like him.

"Go." He nodded his head towards the door. "Give Thor and I a bit."

The girl rolled her eyes- another habit Loki found unattractive- but did as she was told, opening the entry closet door to slide on a pair of flip-flops, rather than putting back on her drenched shoes. She was gone not a second afterwards.

"She keeps spare clothes in your quarters, brother?" Thor looked at Loki with faint disapproval. "Are she and her brother living with you once more?"

Loki frowned.

"For as often as she stays, she ought be." His tone belied a deeper meaning. "She and her brother are… Sharing a difficult time."

"In what manner?"

"What did you come for?" Loki asked. He already knew the answer; the Apple of Idunn's tree of immortality. Possibly for the medallion that still rested in his armor; more or less untouched since the battle with the Jutun.

As expected, Thor passed him a sweet, golden apple. And then he smiled.

"Have you learned anything?"

Ah, yes. Same question as ever. Same stupid smile. Same clueless look about him. Loki held the apple between his fingers, taking in the texture of the smooth, flawless peel and the colour.

"Most humans are weak," He spoke purposely. "And though some be worthy of my attention, others are not worthy of the air they breath."

Thor's brows raised a second time.

"Oh? Has this to do with the maiden's brother?"

"All too much," Loki replied. He didn't want to eat the apple in front of Thor. "The boy drinks his life away, while the girl rebels. He should be grateful that he has his life and his sister. Instead, he laments the injury he received in battle, and the woman who left him because of it." Scowling as his fair-haired brother stroked his beard, he pt the apple on his knee, holding it firmly there.

"I understand his worries, brother, but you are right; to hide in a barrel of mead is not a way to live one's life," the aesir shook his head. "So you have taken in the girl?"

Loki scoffed.

"No," He repeated. "Though she stays all too frequently."

"She desires your company."

"She _desires_ an escape," Loki corrected Thor without missing a beat. "My company is merely an added bonus. One of which she enjoys all too much."

The comment made Thor laugh.

"Then you have learned to enjoy the company of another," He teased.

Loki narrowed his eyes.

"No. I have learned that you are even more annoying when I expect your visits."


	38. Prayers

Elle was reading a book. She looked up from it, making a mental note. Loki could always tell when she was making mental notes; the girl would stare out into space for a moment, gnaw on her lower lip and nod her head, as though she'd been asked a question.

And then she'd go back to her book.

He heard David groan from the bedroom door as he came out, leaning too heavily on his cane as he made his way to the bathroom. Glancing up at the man who's hair had begun to thin a bit on top, Loki wondered if he knew what time to the day it was.

Wallowing in pity; what sort of real man wallowed in pity for so long? In the short three months that had come and gone since Thor's visit, the children (as he frequently called them) had been evicted from their place and had moved back in with him.

To say Loki was displeased was an understatement. And when _Elle_ had discovered that David hadn't been paying the rent… Well; Loki couldn't blame her for not uttering a word since to the man she called her brother.

She certainly _worried_ for him, however, and took on the mantle of caretaker instantly.

And the first thing she did was go about hiding the bottles of prescription painkillers and leaving only a certain number of pills in the little box that David used every day. She made sure he ate. She set his alarm and left notes about physiotherapy and doctors' appointments, leaving small envelopes of cash for the bus and for lunches on top. She made sure that the disability checks stretched as far as they could manage, paying Loki their share of rent, buying groceries and making sure that whatever was left was tucked safely away. But she didn't utter so much as _How are you feeling today_ to the man. Not a _Hi, I love you_, or _How could you_ left her lips.

Not once.

Loki caught her crying on the balcony the weekend before. Half-past two in the morning, breath in puffs of condensated chill and tears running down her face, the girl had sought solace in the chilly October air, arms and feet bared to the dark, as though it were some sort of ritual.

She hadn't seen him and he hadn't dared to venture far enough to try and comfort her, either. He wanted to strangle her brother for making her so miserable. Elle was soon to be a woman, but she was not yet meant to be an adult.

Making them both tea, he sat in the living room and waited for her to come in. She looked at him, turning her head downward in shame. He'd needed to reassure her that there was no shame in crying. She was doing the best she could. _David_ was most certainly the one to blame. Although if Loki thought about it- as with all problems in the lives of those he knew- the problem really could be traced back to _him_. And his connection to the Frost Giants. And his inability to keep his temper in check. And…

Sitting across from her as she continued to read, Loki glanced at the title of the book. The tome boasted a promise of secrets from _Ancient Civilizations_.

"Why are you reading that drivel?" The silence between them broke, and Elle looked up. She shut the book, holding her place with her finger. "You know that I would tell you anything you wish to know." And oddly enough; all to gladly. Their stories had become a ritual between Loki and Elle. Well; up until she and David had moved back in and she had started caring for the grown man on her own.

Suddenly, the stories had stopped and Loki had found himself actually missing the bragging of his adventures, the joy or reliving the tales that had been told to _him_ as a child and the look of thought on Elle's face as she wrote them down.

Elle had her mouth open and her hand lifted, as though poised to say something. Then she dropped her hand and lowered her eyes to the book and closed her lips tightly together again.

"I just… Wanted to read I guess." She looked down at the book in her hands and sighed. "But yeah. It's not as awesome as your stories are. Great for making you think, I guess. Still not as awesome."

Loki felt the corner of his mouth lift in a half-smile. Of course it wasn't as good as his stories. He was Loki. He was the trickster, the hero, the anti-hero, the fun one, the story maker… _He lived_ for the stories of himself. The attention it garnered him…

"I have a question."

"As ever." Loki replied with a snort.

"If you're considered a god…"

"Which I am."

"Then what happens when people pray to you? Do you hear them?"

Well _that _had been unexpected. Of all the mortals that Loki dealt with on a regular basis, it was Elle who generally managed to get the drop on him. She could ask the strangest, complicated questions- and she always expected a full answer.

"I suppose that would be hard to explain," He admitted over his coffee. "Your people have no concept of the word."

"What word?"

Loki uttered something in a language Elle couldn't understand.

"What's it mean?"

"The closest thing you would liken it to would be…" Loki frowned, reaching for the words that would most accurately describe it. "Intermittent telepathy, although that isn't entirely correct." Steadying coffee in one hand as he gestured with another, the god tried to explain. "There are many supplicants in your world. Most serve in word alone. They do not have a strong enough desire to reach us."

Elle leaned forward, putting her book aside. David came out of the bathroom and wandered back into the bedroom again, shutting the door behind him. It caused Loki to frown, despite continuing.

"But sometimes, someone will desire something so strongly that they would have managed to send what you'd call a _prayer_ up to us. And… We heard it." He touched the side of his head for emphasis. "Like… A whisper. Or a tug. Sometimes we would turn to Heimdalls to find out what was really going on."

In all honesty, the whole thing was hard to describe to someone who barely new enough about ground communications to use a cellphone most days. She hated hers, in fact, and rarely charged it, despite the fact that she probably ought have.

The book forgotten over hours of questions and confusing answers, Elle finally stopped asking.

She sat back against the couch.

"You said everything in past tense." But Idunn, the girl was sharp sometimes. Annoying. Hard headed. Hard to deal with at times; but sharp.

Loki pursed his lips and shrugged. The gesture wasn't enough for Elle, because she sat wand stared, waiting for a proper response.

"In your modern times, your people look to other gods," He explained. "It happens to be that the Aesir are not the only gods and that others have made claim in Midgard. It matters not. They, too, will pass from human memories, replaced by new beings and old beings and beings that don't yet exist. It is a cycle."

Silence.

"I think I must have been praying for you," Elle spoke. "And… maybe that's why you happened into the diner."

"I had no say in that matter," Loki replied tartly. "And I assure you, no prayers of yours had reached me." If they had, Loki probably wouldn't have responded. Not then.

"Mm." Elle nodded her head. "Or maybe you answered it without knowing."

Unlikely.

"Because if you hadn't come, I would have been sent to a foster home, y'know."

Yes. And her arm would be whole and healed, and David would be uninjured and he wouldn't be in this mess of a situation, playing friend to a little whelp. Helping a useless adult of a human. Living his life from one dragging month to the next, working a physically laborious job that he only half hated and…

"Did you pray to me?" He asked.

Elle shook her head no.

"I prayed to everyone."


	39. The Dispute

Loki hadn't been home when the incident between Elle and David started. He'd been at work, taking on a double shift to cover for someone who had called sick. The extra labor had left him feeling tired and satisfied.

But now he wanted to pick a fight. Just like the night that he and David had gotten under one another's skin, the man was ready to punch something. _Anything_. Tonight would be a drinking night, for sure.

Elle was screaming when he got to the apartment. The police where there. David was doing his fair share of yelling, but not over what Elle was doing. Loki had known she was loud, but she could have raised the dead with the tone she was using.

It didn't help the situation any.

It had taken two hours of sobbing and screaming and swearing and general upset for him to get the entire story out between the two of them. At some point, Elle had caught David sifting through her things, looking for extra money.

_For pizza_, he'd claimed. _For drugs, more like,_ Elle had said. The beginning of the situation had triggered a shouting match that had escalated until neighbors had been irate enough to call law enforcement for fear that it was a violent dispute. David had never gotten physical with Elle. Not until they were sitting and talking about it in the living room.

Loki was exhausted. Sixteen hours on the job, and he came home to a house of little children. And he'd been foolish to say as much, which had only riled David again, making the man point and shout and then have the nerve to complain about the pain in his leg. And _that_ had only caused Elle further upset as she told her brother he was the whole reason that they were even bothering Loki with their presence to begin with.

Then he was towering over the teen, leaning on his cane heavily, his finger up to her nose and Loki was getting up and ready for a fight- cripple or not, David was asking for it. Then there was a smack; nothing hard enough to make the girl do much more than sting. A push had sent him toppling, though it hadn't been done by Loki.

And then Elle had stormed out of the apartment, all fifteen years of her taking on a thunderstorm of a temper that Loki hadn't ever expected, but couldn't blame. She slammed the door behind her, stalking down the hallway with a slew of shouts from annoyed neighbors trailing after her.

"Yeah, well **_fuck_** all'a ya!" She screamed back, before shoving open the metal door to the stairs with a violent bang and stalking off.

Loki stood over David, hovering for a moment, considering his options. Had he been in the position he had ever been in before… but no. His workboot was already on David's neck.

"As the manager frequently says," He growled. "_Get your act together_." He pressed harder, watching David gasp for breath. Oh, this was a rush. He hadn't had release in an age and… No. David was disabled. A shade of a man, barely even enough to be worth his breath. "Should you ever consider touching a woman like that again, I will. _Break_. You." The boot came up. The red washed from David's face. He laid there on the floor as Loki stomped past him.

Loki found Elle only a few blocks down the street. She had taken off in a dash as soon as she'd managed to get out of the building. Unfortunately, Loki was in no mood for chase. For the first time in a long time, he cast a shadow of himself, cutting her off from going any further.

"Running won't solve anything." She'd shrieked at the sight of him, staring in wonder as he shifted in front of her. "Turn around. Go home."

"He _slapped me_!"

"And he's paid for his lapse in judgement," Loki replied flatly. "But you need not run off."

"I just can't _deal_ with him anymore!" Elle shouted in retaliation. "I'm trying my best! My _best_, Loki! I'm trying to understand that he's in pain and that he's suffering and that it's hard on him! I know it sucks for him because he can't get a job, or he _won't_ get a job, or _something like that _and that disability isn't paying him enough and Rachel left and…" Her voice was wavering violently. Loki took her by the shoulders as his shade vanished. She yelped again, throwing her hand over her mouth.

Awkwardly, he let her throw her face into his chest and sob. He patted her back a couple of times. Several onlookers paused to take note, and he narrowed his green eyes at each, daring them to say something. None did.

"I love him so much but he just... he isn't like he used to be. And what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to just deal with it? He's the one who's supposed to be the grownup, not me!"

Loki sighed. It was time for some tough love, he suspected.

"Have you told your brother?" He asked cryptically.

"That you're a god-alien-person?" Elle wondered with a sniffle. She hadn't stopped hugging him and the contact was beginning to make him nauseated. "No. I didn't figure he'd believe me."

"Good." Loki replied, peeling the teen from him. He held her at arm's length and looked her in the eyes. He had to admit that he was surprised that in all that time she'd never uttered a word to her brother about it. In fact, he was pretty floored. How the girl had managed to keep something like that a secret… Well.

Elle always had been full of surprises.

"Listen to me, now." He spoke in a gentler voice than even _he _expected. "It's been difficult, but things will improve." She didn't appear to believe him, but nodded anyway. Loki couldn't blame her, because he wasn't so certain things would get any better, either. But damn it all; if he didn't at least try, he'd be stuck with the girl _and _her idiot brother for the rest of his sentence.

There was no way he was willing to deal with that.


	40. Is This Even Legal?

_**The Author offers sincerest apologies to all readers. She will try to continue regular updates from here on out. Please enjoy this very short update until later this evening. Thank you. **  
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_Tough love._ Loki hated those two words almost –not quite, but _almost_- as much as he hated being stuck on Midgard. But if there was ever a time for it, now was it, and Elle needed to listen to him if she wanted to do this correctly. He actually had experience in something similar to this once before- a very, _very _long time before- and knew what he was doing.

Elle didn't entirely _approve_ of what he was doing, but she kept her lips tightly closed throughout the entire thing. If it meant that David would go back to being himself… She'd accept it.

So David was tied to the bed.

Gagged, and tied.

_To the bed._

"Are you sure this is okay?" Elle looked a little uncertain. "I mean.. isn't this like.. illegal or something?"

"He's being neither abused, nor kidnapped. This is for his own good." Loki looked down at the irritated man. Tying someone to a bed and gagging them probably _was _considered abuse, now that he thought about it a second time. He wasn't about the share that doubt with Elle.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure." He gave David a condescending pat on the head.

"But what about when I'm at school? Who's gonna take care of him?" Nevermind when the man needed to use the bathroom or something.

"You needn't worry about it." Loki spoke with a learned assurance that he used on everything. "He'll be cared for." More or less.

That was all it took for Elle to trust what he said. If nothing else at all, in the time that she'd come to know Loki, the girl had at least learned to take whatever he told her at face value. Loki was a lot of things, tricky, sly, sometimes he lied, but he seldom ever gave Elle a reason to doubt anything he told her. Loki never directly lied to her, but he had occasionally omitted the truth, and still… If she ever asked him something serious, it didn't seem as though he had ever lied.

So for two weeks, Elle dealt with the racket from the bedroom that Loki usually shared with her brother. She'd listen to him thrash and groan at first… As days went on, he got calmer and less likely to pull on the ropes that held him down. She worried that he'd hurt himself, but Loki promised that he was fine.

Then he got sick, and Elle _really _got worried. He got a fever, and the chilly sweats. She called in sick to school for nearly the entire week he was sick. She'd mop sweat from his face and chest, and make sure he got plenty to drink. Loki told her that she was being too gentle, but he didn't stop her.

Loki took to sleeping on the couch.

It was four weeks before Loki saw fit to untie his would-be prisoner. Elle was surprised to find that the ties hadn't chaffed or scarred his ankles and wrists. She would have asked Loki about it, but she didn't.

David hobbled around the house, complaining quietly of feeling weak and tired… But he only took his two painkillers a day. He started to smile again. About the time that he started to _shave_, Elle started to wonder if she was seeing her brother again; the one she remembered from before the attack.

Three months after the fight, David applied for a job in a call centre. It was an unrewarding job, but he got up and went to work. Things settled down. Life became normal again- or as normal as it got. For a little while, at least.


	41. Fever and Prayer

Despite the fact that the household had finally returned to a semi-normal situation, it seemed as though there was something heavy in the atmosphere. Perhaps it was because Elle still worried about David., or it might have been something unspoken that was going on… But both Loki and David knew it had to do with Elle. She denied everything, of course, telling the two of them not to worry about it. She was tired, she hadn't been feeling well, she had extra school work to do; there were an awful lot of excuses, Loki thought.

Neither he, nor David continued to press the matter.

The morning that Elle woke up with a fever, Loki opted to stay home so that David could go to work. Despite the fact that David protested, he insisted. He hadn't been working long enough to excuse a day off, and besides that, Loki had been working overtime, and didn't mind taking the day away from the docks.

So Elle stayed in her bed, silently fussing and unable to get comfortable between her sweats and chills. She'd kick off all the blankets, and then draw them back up again, dozing and waking in turns as her body protested.

After a while, she got out of the bed, wandering into the living room, blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she went. Loki was reading an old book, making notations in a little notepad beside him.

"You should be resting."

"Can't. Uncomfortable." Elle sat down in the loveseat, far enough away from Loki that she didn't need to worry about getting him sick. "Feel like crap." She mumbled, snuggling into her blanket. "Too warm, too cold, can't get comfortable. Y'know. The usual flu stuff."

Of course Loki didn't understand. How could he? He had been sick all of twice as a child, and though neither time had been pleasant, they had been short lived thanks to the healers of Asgard. He couldn't remember ever having a fever that left him looking or feeling the way Elle described.

"What do you need to feel better?" His voice betrayed concern, and Loki cursed it inwardly.

"I have no idea." The teen snuffled bitterly, burying her face under the blanket before uttering something completely inappropriate. When she came out again, her short hair was sticking out all over the place, making her look less like the young woman and more like some kind of thin, grouchy troll that had been rolling around under the bed.

Loki kept his opinions to himself. Sighing, he felt a little bit like a nursemaid as he stood to get the girl something to drink. Best that she stay hydrated, of that at least, Loki was relatively sure. He filled a glass with water. A thump alerted him to something in the living room. Glancing over the half wall, he didn't see Elle's head. Heart thumping, he nearly dropped the glass. But Loki was far wiser than to be dramatic. Keeping his wits on him, he stepped around the wall, catching sight of Elle laying on the floor, blanket puddled around her body.

"Elle." She didn't move. "Elle. Wake."

Kneeling, he rolled her over on her back. She was still breathing. A touch of her neck revealed that her pulse was erratic and hard. He put a cool hand against her hot, clammy forehead.

"Elle, wake up." He gently patted her cheeks. Nothing happened and the lack of result sent an electric jolt of panic through his chest.

Like it or not, Loki was going to have to take the girl to the hospital. He carefully slid his hands under her body, balancing the girl as he gestured to the phone. It had been a while since he'd used his magic in such a way, and the _jutun_ was surprised to find it had become a little more difficult than it should have been.

He instantly cursed the mortal realm as he dialed 9-1-1. The first responders were worried about her fever first. They asked Loki if she'd been showing any prior symptoms as they took the young woman to the ambulance. He couldn't think of anything, but she'd been complaining of fatigue for a while now. He sat in the ambulance with her, managing to garner no protest from the first responders

When they hooked Elle up to the IV, Loki found himself having to look away. He didn't like the medicine of Midgard. It was disturbing and invasive in ways that healing practices never should have been. Even more so, it upsets him to watch these people pack the thin girl in ice. She shivered and moaned in her unconscious state as they took her temperature, monitoring it seemingly by the minute.

Does she have meningitis? A couple of the doctors go about asking one another if there had been any other reports recently. Loki didn't know what this illness was, but from what he gathered, it was painful and miserable. They had taken the ice from around Elle's body, and for that much he was eternally grateful. Seeing Elle's body heat turn bags of ice into bags of water was discomforting to say the least.

David showed up to the hospital at about the same time that the doctors decided they would go ahead and take a spinal tap, _just in case_. To say that the older brother was displeased was an understatement, and he demanded to know if there was really no other way to find out. In the end, he relented.

The screaming that came from the needle was enough to set all of Loki's nerves on end. She was swearing every curse she knew, and making up others on the way.

For the first time since he was a child, Loki did some praying of his own, just to make sure she'd be okay.


	42. Loki Hated Midgard

Loki was angry. It was a complete 180 from his previous concern, but there it was. He was angry. Standing in Elle's bedroom, he stared down at the young woman icily. Elle was laying, as the doctors had commanded, flat on her back. Her bedroom was as dark as any apartment bedroom could be with aid of a couple of sheets and some thumbtacks.

She was crying.

"You should have said something," David scolded her from her bedside. "We _asked_ you."

"Go away, David." Elle breathed. She wanted to roll over on her side, or onto her belly, or curl up with a pillow… But no. She had to lay flat on her back, which was quite possibly the least comfortable position in the history of ever. And of course, there was no pillow involved. A quick internet search told David that lying flat didn't help anymore than anything else, but Elle insisted on doing what the doctor told her.

Obviously it wasn't doing any good. Her head was pounding.

The hospital had discharged her not too long after the spinal tap, chalking up her sudden upset to severe stress, although neither Loki nor her brother could figure out what said stress might be. It took a lot of prying, coaxing, bribing and finally demanding for the story to come out.

She was barely an adult. The young woman sat on the cusp between being a child and being a young woman. At fifteen, she had physically budded later than a lot of her friends, only recently showing a curve in her hips and her bust. But her mentality had been pushed beyond the average fifteen year old's scope.

Elle had to deal with living with a God. She was scarred up her arm, and on her shoulder as well. She had been homeless, assaulted, in the middle of a battle and had become the adult in the family far too soon.

During all the months that she had been dealing with David and his addiction to his painkillers, Elle had been forced to be the housewife that Rachel had been supposed to be. She had taken care of the bills, the bill collectors, the cooking, the cleaning and all the responsibility that should have been shared between two responsible adults.

She hadn't been sleeping, her eating habits had failed to keep up with what her developing body had needed… And Elle had felt that going to Loki with the trouble of the house would have been like asking for help. The girl was too proud.

And her pride had been what had caused her to become Ill, so far as Loki could tell. To say he was unimpressed was an understatement. He turned to David with a glint of fury in his eyes. Where David was concerned, Loki could put the blame squarely on the man's shoulders.

But then more came to light, and both David and Loki wondered about what kind of person they were watching grow up before them. Elle had decided to pick up a job. Loki knew this, but David had not. He had assumed she was still doing extracurricular school-related activities. So on top of being stressed out at home, Elle had gotten a job at a local corner, working for a few hours at a time stocking, pricing, taking inventory- whatever they needed, really, so help bring in some income.

This meant less time with the few people she knew at school. It also meant less sleep, and less time to relax, which she had needed desperately. It kept her from eating properly, because she was always busy.

Loki was angry with himself for not noticing how tired the girl had been, and angry at her brother for not realizing what was going on. David was furious that she had kept it from him, even after she had protested, claiming that she had told him repeatedly, and irritated with Loki for not letting him know what was happening. Elle rolled in her bed again, pulling the covers up above her chin so that she wouldn't have to face the men.

She had cropped all the locks on her head because she didn't have time to deal with her hair first thing. With it short, she could wash it and brush it and run again.

But then there had been the school thing. Neither of the men had known anything about what was going on at school. She was failing her classes. She was having trouble with bullies, although she'd kept her mouth shut about it. Why bother Loki? He was working hard at keeping his own life in order. And bother David? David was good to get out of bed these days, and even get to work, but she hated the idea of burdening him with any further issues. What if he got too stressed out and went back to abusing his prescription?

Both men rebuked her thoroughly. How dare she let herself get to this point?

"Elle…" David sat on the edge of her bed. "You can't just not tell us anything."

Loki was in mind to disagree. She could _not tell_ them anything she wanted. It was when it started to affect everyone in the family that it... He stopped himself. No; _absolutely not_. These two were not his family. As far as Loki was concerned, he had no family. He had killed his father, driven away his brother, he hated the man that had adopted him…

He had Frigga. That was it. _That was all he needed_.

"You worried us for something that could have been taken care of so simply," He spoke icily. "Selfish little girl. Making yourself ill like this? What hoped you to accomplish?"

Elle sat up a little bit, staring at Loki with saucered eyes. The pain that thrummed behind them was visible as Loki turned on his foot and left the room.

He wished he understood his own anger. Was it because she had made them worry over something that never needed to happen, or because he had been _so_ concerned, that he had actually offered a prayer himself? What softness. What needlessness!

He had begun to think and act like a mortal in the few years he had spent among them.

Damn them. _All of them_.

And yet the word kept hitting the back of his mind like a bug against a glass pane. He'd drive it off for a few minutes, and it would return. Send it away, and it came back. No. He didn't need this ignorant emotion.

The apartment door slammed shut behind him as he left David and Elle to their discussion.

He was Loki. He was a Prince. A _God_.

And by _Odin_, someone was gonna have to take heed to that! That night he took his anger and frustration out on a couple of rednecks at the bar. Getting his face bloodied felt better than trying to get drunk on cheap, watery Midgardian beer. Pounding his fists into an opponent that was almost his own size was like getting high.

And sure, Loki had his magic to aide him, but he'd been so long without it that just getting his body into the brawl felt almost as good as using that magic had been as a child. He laughed at his injuries, laughed with his brawling partners, and stared somberly into the bottom of an empty pint.

Loki hated Midgard.


End file.
